Gundam World
by Shenyu
Summary: Chapter 16 [The Final Stretch]: The Freedom, its phase shift armor still on, speeds towards my location. He flew right past me, it seems like shutting off all of my systems had erased me from his radar.
1. Phase 1 Epi 1 Beginnings

Declaimer: I do not own the Gundam series or any merchandise related to it, I am but a humble author trying to create a fun story for all to read and enjoy (and NOT plagiarize)

Author's notes: some information were corrected and written into context after a little research. And as a important note, **there is NO Coordinators in this story**. So that means that both people in space and on Earth have the same genetic makeup and no advantage is gained through gene modification. This will also significantly differ my story to the basic plot of Gundam Seed (Which I am trying to do instead of just ripping the plot from GS)since the core need, and reason for war is, fundamentally, altered.

And also, this story won't be centered around Gundam Seed alone, it will be a compilation of several Gundam series and characters from Rurouni Kenshin will make appearances, so you can call this a crossover. Anyways, all I can say is, read and enjoy!

Gundam world: The war of the Cosmic Era

Phase 1 Episode 1

The new weapon known as M.S

Through the glassless windows of a burned building, 3 giant robots were seen, trekking through the ruined and deserted streets of the city of Panama. The attack, by the Space Alliance on Panama, had last for three days and the Earth alliance's forces are finally on retreat.

Thousands of civilians were killed in the crossfireand more was to come. Now the Space Alliance is weeding out all remaining Earth Alliance forces in the area. The weapons that were used to carry out the attack and defense were these huge man-like contraptions called Mobile suits; these, more specifically, are called Zakus. The Zakus are the primary weapons used by the space alliance to carry out all forms of warfare. Soldiers that were trained for the task of using them piloted these. Covered in a thick, dark green armor and carrying huge beam weapons, their movements were slow but deliberate, each step kicking up a cloud of dust. The visor that glowed red in the helmet surveyed its surroundings suspiciously.

Suddenly, a series of thundering sound was heard. Huge bullets rushed towards the unsuspecting group of three Zakus and embedded themselves in the armor of the last robot. The victims turned around hastily and raised their rifle at the white robot that stood in the distance, their target: one remaining Earth alliance mobile suit. The white mobile suite was battered up; one of its arms and parts of its head was missing. It was supporting its semiautomatic gun with one arm that shook violently as the shocks of the weapon went back into it while the huge bullet shells fell at its feet like rain.

The Zakus separated swiftly and charged towards the lone figure with unexpected speed. One pulled out a handle of some sort from its waist and a bright light instantly burst out at the end of it, forming a sword like weapon of energy.

The Earth alliance mobile Suit took two steps back and its legs buckled as it fell to the ground with a loud thud that shook the surrounding buildings. Its arm rose up towards the sky as it released the last of its ammo. The next instant, the Zaku with the beam saber stood over the now immobile EAMS (Earth Alliance Mobile Suit) and plunged its blade into the chest of its victim. Huge electric sparks erupted from where the beam saber was embedded into the EAMS and the Zaku leaped away before the whole unit exploded violently.

Maybe if the explosion weren't so loud, the pilots of the Zakus would have heard the agonized scream of its pilot as his body was scorched and decimated. But now, The Zakus simply turned around and continued on their patrol. Their emotionless "eyes" took to surveying their surroundings once again like the machines that they are. But the emotions of their pilots will never be conveyed on the battlefield.

Oxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

In the 52-year of the cosmic era, men have taken to living in space on huge man made colonies due to over population and growing conflict on Earth. At first, Earth governments had strong control over the space colonies through economic partnership and agriculture. But as time began to wind on, the Earth began to use the Space colonies as an industrial warehouse for valuable minerals available only in space such as the hardest metal ever found, Gundanium.

Many workers and peasents who were struck by poverty on Earth began to flood to the Space Colonies looking for jobs; soon, the Space Colonies were overcrowded with millions of poor citizens from Earth.

The living conditions in the space colonies soon worsened. Serious pollution caused many deaths due to the Space colony's lack of natural air recycling organisms. People on Earth thought of Space colony dwellers as people who weren't wanted on the mother planet.

These issues gradually were resolved as the Space colonies formed a space alliance for trading and support between the colonies in space. And soon after, the separate colonies came together and were physically joined to form the heart of the space alliance called PLANT. And a few years later, the space alliance gained independence from Earth governments under the ZAFT, Zodiac Alliance Freedom Treaty. The ZAFT, although independent politically, still relied heavily on agriculture goods from the Earth, letting Earth have total diplomatic control still. A few years later, the newly elected chairmen of the PLANT, Siegel Clyne, dedicated 3 out of ten of the artificial residential planets to large agriculture development that would rid the tight grip of Earth over PLANT using food. The Earth providers and politicians saw this as a threat of total isolation of PLANT and began demanding certain colonies be handed over as transport sectors from Earth into space. These requests were refused by the ZAFT out of fear that the Earth will put blockades and monopolize the space resources industry.

By this time, growing tensions between Earth andPLANT had reached a pinnicle where small to medium scale conflict was almost inevitable. Some hardcore generals were already planning and strategizing a full scale invasion of PLANT. In the meanwhile, PLANT had began establishing a small scale, technologically advanced defensive force for itself.

After repeated refusal of the request, Earth launched a series of missile attacks on the artificial planet Junius seven, the PLANT's largest agriculture provider. The life supporting barriers on the colony was penetrated and many civilians died or were sucked out into space, rendering the planet inhabitable. ZAFT retaliated by launching bombing campaigns on key military missile sites on Earth, thus destroying most of the ability of the Earth to attack space and ensuring their own protection.

Earth Alliance saw this as a major threat of hostile take over by the ZAFT now that their means of defense were practically rendered useless; and so the Earth Alliance began constructing the Mass driver; a mechanism that is, in theory, able to deliver large amounts of material into space with low cost and much higher efficiency than the conventional rocket propulsion systems. This was Earth's means of delivering their space fleets and weapons into space.

The first mass driver was built in Panama and in operation. The ZAFT, wanting to contain these "incidents" as small-scale skirmishes and not escalated to total war, launched a land attack in Panama to destroy the mass driver.

ZAFT's weaponry superiority ensured the victory beginning, but the attack was so successful that the ZAFT not only conquered Panama, but also began to expand their territory on Earth. The Earth alliance was forced into a corner by the ZAFT's unstoppable expansion. The threat of the attack on the Atlantic federation was looming closer each day, and retaliation was futile against the ZAFT's mobile armors.

Earth, as a last resort, declared war on the ZAFT and launched a nuclear attack on Yakin Doe, the ZAFT headquarters based in space.

The attack was deflected, and ZAFT soon declared war on the Earth Alliance. PLANT was largely concerned as to the threat of the EA's nuclear weapons and the catastrophic destruction it would unleash if one were to hit PLANT. The Space alliance immediately began working on a solution.

A few months later, PLANT dropped thousands of N-Jammers (Nuclear Jammers to prevent all nuclear energy) into the Earth. These N-Jammers were designed to alleviate nuclear energy by suppressing the nuclear fission reaction through blocking the free movement of neutrons. These N-Jammers' effective range was so great that a handful of them were able to spread its effect throughout the whole world, it also destroyed the communications system such as radars with its strong interference. This sent most of the world into an energy crisis since most of the energy was derived from nuclear power. This new technology rendered the use of classical weapons, even in space, like long-range missiles, that rely heavily on radars, useless.

Soon after this, both Earth and ZAFT began to develop a new type of weapon that were used hundreds of years before for fighting competitions only. They developed and improved on the weapon known as Mobile suits. This new weapon allowed for great versatility on the new battlefield because it is usable for combat within sight (fighting what is in your range of sight instead of relying on radars), so it doesn't rely on the outdated radars, and it is a unilateral mechanism that can carry a variety of powerful weapons at once.

The hopes of ZAFT to limit the extent of the "Junius Seven Incident" were crushed as total war reared its ugly head when the first Mobile suits were used to take back Panama.

And so the war of the cosmic era began, with the use of a new weapon called mobile suits.

Author's notes: That was just a brief history to Gundam World which is similar to that of Gundam Seed, with changes that I have made to accommodate my story. And NO, this won't be a history lesson, this is going to be an epic romantic space battle story much like a combination of GUNDAM seed + destiny + G Gundam, and maybe even a crossover! So keep your eyes open! And if you liked the chapter, please leave a note so I know that you liked it!


	2. Phase 1 Epi 2

Declaimers: I do not own Gundam Seed, or Gundam, the series.

Gundam World: The War of the Cosmic Era

Chapter 2

A soldier named Kira

"Kira, Kira Yamato, please report to the bridge on the Majestic." The loud speakers rang through the Carpentaria Earth Alliance base as soldiers performed their tasks vigorously. One boy, named Kira Yamato, lifted his focused, brown eyes from the book that he was reading as he heard his name. He stood up from the bed in his living quarters and stretched lazily.

"Awww..." he pouted, "The book was just getting to the good part too." But orders are orders; Kira closed the book, remembering to bookmark the page that he was at. Placing the book beside his pillow, Kira exited the room and headed towards the new Earth Alliance space battleship, the Majestic.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

In the bridge of the battleship Majestic, soldiers were busy operating and maintaining the ship and electronic noises from various equipments were humming harmoniously. A tall, red haired man yawned as he sat in his plush captain seat located in the middle of the bridge, waiting for his guest to arrive; A report labeled "the stats and performances of Kira Yamato" sat in front of him, it appeared to have recently been read. He turned slightly as he heard the communicator to his left buzz into life.

"Kira Yamato, reporting to the bridge as requested," a fuzzy voice sounded from the speaker. The soldier operating the communicator turned around to look at the red head, who made a swishing motion with his hand. The operator turned back around.

"Please proceed, Kira Yamato." The buzz in the communicator died, and soon after, the humming of the elevator sounded and stopped. The sliding mechanical doors opened and out walked Kira. He stopped and saluted.

"Kira Yamato reporting for duty." The red haired man slowly turned around in his captain seat and pushed himself up, a smile spreading across his face.

"I am Kenshin Himura, the captain of the Majestic," Kenshin addressed himself and gestured for the young man before him to follow him to his seat. "Do you pilot a mobile suit?" He asked.

"No sir, I am a new, second grade soldier, I am currently training to be a M.S. pilot." Kira said in a disciplined tone of voice.

"Ah, I see." The captain said in a jovial tone, "my advisors have informed me of your impressive piloting skills on the training grounds."

"Thank you sir."

Kenshin looked Kira over and walked past the boy towards the elevator leading out of the bridge "Well, follow me." He said as he pressed the down button on the elevator, the door opened.

"Take over for me when I'm gone lufius." Kenshin addressed his second-in-command as Kira walked into the elevator, and then he stepped into the cabin and closed the door. They were both silent as the elevator dropped a few levels and stopped, the doors slid open and they both exited.

After walking a distance in silence, the captain began," Kira, what do you think of the war?"

Kira thought for a brief moment.

"I simply wish that the Earth Alliance emerge victorious and peace is once again restored." He replied quickly, not thinking much.

Kenshin was silent for a moment, as if contemplating what was said. "Do you think that peace is necessarily restored if we win?" He took a sideways glance at the boy who looked surprised, "I'm sure that the coordinators don't want chaos either. They are fighting, just like us, to attain peace." Kenshin's strides hastened and Kira struggled a bit to keep up with the tall man.

"Sir," Kenshin heard the young soldier start again, "I think that…" Kira stopped for a moment, "I think that we fight for our beliefs and so does the ZAFT."

"Oh? And what does that mean?" The captain asked.

"That means that… even though the ZAFT and Earth Alliance are enemies, we both have the same goals," Kira struggled for a second and continued, "Only we have different methods of attaining it."

"Ah, we are here." Kenshin said just as the boy finished, not giving him a feedback as they stopped in front of a huge steel gate.

"Beyond this point this point is the weapons hanger for the ship Majestic, I have something to show you." Kenshin turned to Kira with a cold expression. The soldier felt a chill go up his spine as the captain suddenly became solemn and cold.

Kenshin turned and took out, from his chest pocket, a platinum card. Then he walked up to the card reader beside the gate and slid it through. A moment passed.

"Captain Himura, welcome, please enter" said a mechanical voice from the machine. With a loud thud, the gate slowly slid up, revealing, to Kira's awe, rows upon rows of mobile suits. Men hurried at the foot of many of these units to perform maintenance and adjustments.

"This is the main power of Majestic," The captain began as huge lights shone down on the hanger and crept over both of them as the door slowly slid up. "With the new, dual catapult launching system which can launch 50 mobile suits in 10 minutes and the maximum carrying capacity of1000 EAMSs, the Majestic becomes a formidable battle ship to offset the ZAFT spatial warfare superiority."

Kira was amazed. Never before had he seen so many Mobile suits compacted into one place. This was literally an army. Kenshin began walking again and Kira's eyes snapped from left to right as they kept on walking. The hanger floor was built from solid steel and the Earth Alliance Mobile Suits were parked in tightly compacted rows. Sparks flew from many of the units as adjustments and repairs were done to them.

Then, before he knew it, they were standing before yet another gate, or rather, a large subsection within the hanger. The area around it was different from the rest. It was isolated. Kira saw Kenshin walk up to the gate and punch a series of numbers into the pad. And then, with a click, the doors opened slowly. Kira could see nothing inside, as it was completely dark.

"Follow me Kira," The captain beckoned as he entered into the pitch black beyond the gate, "what you will see will both be your strength and burden as a soldier." The power of those words sent a shock through the young soldier.

Kira Yamato's breath caught for a second, he could see the enormous outline of a mobile suit shrouded in the dark. Something about it was different. Slowly, he took one step, then another, into the hanger where Kenshin waited patiently. The gate closed shut behind him after he entered. Now Kira's surrounding were pitch black, he could only hear his own rapid breathing.

Then, suddenly, several huge white lights turned on with a loud click. All of them were focused on one object. Kira could clearly see the figure now. It was a mobile suit but not a normal mobile suit; everything about it was different. In fact, Kira was having trouble processing what was in front of him. Its body was gray without a trace differing color. The design was sleek and captivating, a V-shaped, antenna like mechanism was installed on its armored forehead.

"What is that?" Kira asked very curiously.

Kenshin smiled as he observed the youth's fascination with this machine.

"This machine you see before you will be your weapon." Kenshin said. Kira's head snapped so quickly to look at Kenshin that his neck cricked.

"M, me?" Kira was thrilled, "you mean, this mobile suit will be mine!" Kenshin was well aware of the strong, eager aura that suddenly emitted from the boy.

"This mobile suit is our ace in the whole." Kenshin began proudly, "This type of mobile suit is still under experiment. Kira, this is a GUNDAM, short for General Unrestricted Network Drive Assault Module. This unit, and four other Gundams will be used as we launch an attack on the ZAFT's Moon military base in approximately two days. You will join the assault using the most powerful mobile suit yet built. Your advisor, major Mwu La Flaga will be here to brief you tomorrow at 05:30, be on time." Kenshin pressed a switch on the wall and the gates opened again, "our victory and the lives of many of our soldiers will rest on your shoulders as you are the first to field test this machine. If the results are successful, a mass production model of this unit will go into production, ensuring Earth Alliance superiority." Kenshin explained, "don't let this Gundam be stolen from you."

To Be Continued

Author's notes: finally, things are going to pick up!


	3. Phase 1 Epi 3

Declaimers: I do not own Gundam seed or the series, which this story may concern.

Gundam World: The War of the Cosmic Era

Phase 1

Episode 3

Kira woke up the next morning to a headache, much of which owing to the fact that he had barely slept last night. In fact, he didn't sleep, but was kept up all night by the worry and anxiety that surrounded him.

When the lights turned on in his dorm at exactly 04:30, he felt sick, he didn't want to get up, but didn't want to stay in bed either._ Life must hate me_, he thought.

The boy groaned and slowly rolled off of his bed and dressed himself in his blue and white Earth Alliance Uniform. After he had cleaned up his bed, Kira exited his dormitory and headed towards the majestic, rubbing his eyes to revive himself. Today was going to be a long day.

Kira was supposed to meet his advisor at 05:30 sharp at the Strike Gundam hanger, so that gave him some time to eat. Kira yawned as he pushed open the doubles doors and entered the cafeteria. It was already crowded, as many soldiers had already begun their breakfast in preparation for their tasks. Except today there seemed to be a lot of younger soldiers and very few veterans could be seen. Kira looked from left to right, look for his friends.

"Kira! Over here!" He turned his head and saw his friends crowded around a large table near the back and proceeded towards it, the first smile of the day slowly working its way to his tired lips. Luna was the one that was calling him, waving enthusiastically at the same time.

Kira walked up to the table.

"Good morning," he said to several people before sitting down. "Where are Aoshi and Tolle and the rest of them?" He asked as he looked around the table curiously and only finding 3 people there.

"They were called in to handle some paperwork for the moon attack mission, some ships have already launched." Soujirou, a smiling boy beside Kira said while the other two nodded.

"Are any of you assembled for the Ptolemaeus base assaultmission?" Kira asked, dread beginning to sink into his stomach at the mention of the formal name of the attack. The girls suddenly stared up from their food and looked at Kira questioningly.

"Our rank isn't involved in the moon mission. We are still in training as second rank soldiers." Luna said as if it were the most obvious fact. Kira fell silent and decided to not talk anymore, when Luna began asking questions, she could go on for hours.

"Where's your breakfast Kira? Didn't you get any?" Luna looked at him curiously.

"I don't feel like eating, I feel sick." Kira replied truthfully.

"Didn't you get any sleep? You look like a panda!" A black haired girl with large blue eyes said, seemingly pop out of nowhere.

"I'm fine, Misao," Kira smiled, a yawn made its way to his face,"I'm just tired, no need to worry." He said and turned to Soujirou. "How's your M.S. training going Soujirou?"

The boy grinned cheerfully. "I'm doing fine. " His smile faltered a bit as he stopped for a moment. "But truthfully, I really am beginning to think about changing to a communicator on a battleship." He said, still smiling, the smile never seem to fade from Soujirou's lips,"I just think that mobile suits don't fit me that well."

"Same here," Kira said half heartedly, _but I don't think I have a choice now_. "Have you filed a transferreport yet?" he asked. But knowing Soujirou, the boy would be whipped before he troubled anyone.

"No, I don't think I'll be allowed to switch since it is war time and the people at the ministry of financejust don't have time to deal with things like this." Soujirou said in a downcast tone though still smiling. Kira patted him on the back in reassurance, he yawned again.

"I'm sure the war will be over before any of us have to fight." Kira said cheerfully while he knew that was far from the truth.

At 05:30, after a forced breakfast thanks to his three ecstatic friends who always seem to be full of energy, Kira walked towards the Strike hanger, his stomach churning loudly while trying to wake up with a heavy load of food already in it. As he approached, he saw, leaning on the wall beside the keypad, a tall, blonde haired Major(judging by his uniform) who was reading a popular magazine. Kira walked up to him and snapped off a brisksalute.

"Kira Yamato, are you major Mwu La Flaga?" he asked politely. TheMajor stopped reading and lifted his face to look at the young man before him, a surprised look entering his gaze.

"You are Kira Yamato?" The major asked as if he couldn't believe it, he closed the magazine. Then he laughed. After calming down a bit, he looked over Kira again and said, "When the Captain told me to brief a 'Kira Yamato' about the specs of the Strike, I thought this 'Kira' would be an experienced ace. But you are a second grade soldier aren't you?" he said as his laughter became a fatherly smile.

"Yes sir, I am a second grade soldier in training for the third Earth Alliance M.S. battle division." Kira answered, standing rigidly. The Major's behavior had caught him off guard, making him a little cautious, standing as rigid as he can is all that kept him from fidgeting, which would probably not be good.

"Well, you aren't a second grade soldier anymore, be glad that the captain has such a keen sight for future aces." Mwu said, "a new uniform will be delivered to your dorm before tomorow, it should have double yellow stripes and black squares on the shoulder, make sure of that. You are now part of the special ops M.S. pilot group. I am the commanding officer of the Special Ops M.S. team that you belong to; You will be taking orders from me."

"Yes sir," Kira said, becoming tense, and saluted again, "I will do my best to be of assistance to you and the team sir!"

"Just call me Mwu, we'll be fighting as a team from now on." Mwu said and turned around, then he punched in a series of numbers into the keypad and the gate began to open slowly. "There'll be many dangerous missions where we'll have to act as shadows and go behind enemy lines. Your mobile suit's self destruct code is 2083, remember that in case you'll need it."Mwu said and led Kira to the foot of the Strike Gundam, where an elevator was waiting. "Now, power up the strike and contact the bridge of Majestic from there. Then launch strike; the coordinates will be sent to you from the bridge, I'll be briefing you about the specs of the Strike at the specified coordinates."Major Mwu La Flagasaid and pushed Kira onto the elevator, then he pressed the up button and it shot straight up.

The major waved, then he turned around and headed for his own, Burning Gundam.

The elevator stopped right in front of the chest of the Strike where the cockpit was located. Kira stepped up to it and it opened automatically. He jumped inside and seated himself in the pilot seat, realizing for the first time, how much more comfortableGundam cockpits are compared to the junky, outdatedEAMSs that they used for training. Kira looked around, noticing that the cockpit was a rather cramped space. All around him were control mechanisms similar but different to the Mobile suits that he was used to piloting. In front of him was a screen with a series of buttons around it; several joysticks and levers are placed around him. The controls are similar to that of the EAMS but much more advanced and sophisticated.

Kira saw, beside the screen, the red ON button and pressed it with his thumb. And then the strike came to life. The whole unit groaned and hummed around him as if waking up for the first time. The cockpit entrancesnapped shutand for a moment everything was dark. But the next second, all around Kira things lit up, large field projections all around him showed a 360 degrees view of horizontal and lateral space outside, filling his field and peripheral vision. The smaller screen right in front of him flashed and turned on. First, there appeared, on the screen, the Earth Alliance symbol. Then, the letters G.U.N.D.A.M. appeared and following it the words General Unilateral Network Drive Assault Module. The words disappeared and after a beep, commands appeared on it

"WELCOME TO M.O.S.G. MOBILE SUIT OPERATING SYSTEM GUNDAM 8.0.0. FIRST BOOT UP SEQUENCE INITIATED. PLEASE ENTER NAME"

"Kira Yamato" Kira said clearly and his name appeared out of a list of names, which appeared on the screen. Kira's eyes lit up, forgetting all about the sleepiness, this was _cool_.

"Kira Yamato, Earth Alliance Special Operation mobile Suit Division. Correct?"

"Yes."

"Mission from Majestic: Please proceed to sector L7, coordinates x, 178.79. Y, 58.62 for battle simulation with major Mwu La Flaga in Burning Gundam. Return to Majestic at 15:00 for repairs and maintenance. Understood?"

Kira felt a little weird talking to a screen that spat out orders at him, but he proceeded to say, "Yes, command understood." As he said that, all the words disappeared from the screen and in its place was a power meter and list of weapons. Then, on the large outside projection screen before him, an inset popped up that showed the circular launch gates above him opening for his launch.

"Opening communication circuit." The communicator in the cockpit buzzed and from it came the voice of the operator.

"Kira Yamato, do you copy?"

"Yes, I copy, over."

"Please stand by while the striker pack is equipped for Strike Gundam, then you have clearance to launch."

"Yes, understood." The inset on the field projection switched to a shot from the back of strike Gundam as a wing like, red armor clicked into place.

"Kira yamato on Strike, please launch." Taking this as his cue, Kira pushed the thruster lever to maximum.

"Kira Yamato, Launching!" The thrusters on the striker pack roared to life and the whole unit blasted off from the floor, ripping through all the wires and cables that were connected to it. Then, it emerged from the launch window above the Majestic and blasted towards its destination.

end of phase

Author's notes, this is where the introductions and most of the basis for GUNDAM World is set. I have to apologize for the amount of reading for you guys that you already know. But you see, this is a politics novella, which I have to write for my politics class, and I would be darned if my politics teacher knows what GUNDAMS and Cosmic Era is lol. So thanks for reading up till now. I promise to deliver an exciting ride from now forward!

I would also like to thank Gundam seed Genesis , seedgenesis . net for all the information on Gundam Seed and gundam Seed destiny which has provided me with literally everything I needed to know about when writing this. The site corrected many mistakes which I made throughout the writting of this story!


	4. Phase 2 Epi 1 The siege of Moon

Declaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed.

Phase 2 Episode 1

IN PLANT

On the ZAFT Yakin Doe base Near PLANT, hundreds of military mobile units scrambled to board various ships. Gears churned and sparks flew.

"Transport Gondwana, please begin loading." Theloud speakersbuzzed. Many Zaku warriors and mobile armors awaited on the several launch pads, awaiting orders to load into a transport ship headed for the moon, Ptolemaeus base.

Military intelligence had confirmed, two days ago, of a massing of EA military personnel and equipment at the Earth Alliance Carpentaria base. A possible Earth planned attack on the ZAFT stronghold on moon, a strategically vital location, was anticipated. Many ZAFT troops are now beginning their 2-day space journey to the base.

Even though the Ptolemaeus base is armed with advanced defense systems such as Magnetic Acceletator Cannons that orbit the planet and strong military back-up, the Earth Alliance is not to be underestimated; if the EA was advantageous at anything, it's their sheer numbers and ability to quickly overwhelm any fortress.

"Athrun Zala on Commander-Type Blaze Zaku, please board the Bismarck."

"Understood, boarding Blaze Zaku." A blue haired boy said as he sat in the cockpit of his Mobile Suit, a grim expression over his face.He powered up his unit. A blue, different, and menacing Zaku hummed mechanically as it was powered up. Its "eyes" lit up to an amber color and the unit stood up from its previously kneeling position while sparks flew from its many geared joints. It took several steps and entered the ZAFT first fleet's flagship, the Bismarck. The gate closed behind him after he entered and locked.

"The Nazca and Aegis fleets have been launched, flagship, please launch." The bridge of the Bismarck was noisy and busy as they prepared to launch the massive, 2500-meter space battleship.

"Arthur, make final launch preparations." The tall, lean captain of the Bismarck said to his co-captain as he sat comfortably in his elevated captain seat. A series of energy and weapons status flashed in front of him and he made various adjustments.

"Yes sir." Arthur, the second in command on the Bismarck said and went over to the radio, he picked up the speaker and spoke into it. "Bismarck is preparing to launch, all personnel please evacuate from the launch area."

Hajime Saitou, the commander/captain of the Bismarck, spoke. "Bismarck launch in 30 seconds, initiate launch procedures." He commanded and sat back.

"Beginning final weapons and system checkups." The operator said. "Ship boosters at 20 percent, 24 seconds to launch." This was the first launch of the Bismarck since its debut as the ZAFT's first super-carrier, at this moment, the Bismarck was the largest battleship/carrier ever built, and it is the pride of PLANT and ZAFT. "Booster at 40 percentpower, 10 seconds to launch. Releasing stabilization mechanisms." A low rumbling was heard in the bridge as the battleship's mighty engine roared. "6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 launch sequence initiated!"

Everyone in the bridge was suddenly forced back as thehugeship suddenly accelerated an an unbelievable rate.

"I didn't know this ship could accelerate at this rate!" Arthur said, turning around to face Saitouwith amazement.

"The Bismarck is the pride of ZAFT, there is much more which even I don't understand about this ship." Saitou said as a smirk graced his lips. "The Earth Alliance will be the first force that our superior power is tested against."

"Our victory is assured with the Bismarck, the Earth Alliance couldn't possibly think of taking thePtolemaeusbase now that we are headed there." Arthur's eyes were full of ambition now and traces of tears were in his eyes.

"Don't be too proud and get yourself lost in patrioticism," a malicious glint entered Saitou's narrowing eyes. "If you underestimate your enemy, then you will only die on the battlefield. And if you underestimate the destructive power of the EA, then your death is assured." Arthur went silent and turned his face instead to look out of the huge windows on the bridge. The military facilities on the Yakin Doe base were becoming smaller and smaller rapidly as they sped away from it. Around the mighty flagship were literally hundreds of ships of different classes and typesspread out throughout a large area in space, forming a formidable armada. All the transport ships carrying the Mobile suits were placed near the center around the Bismarck while menacing Nazca, Aegis and other escort and battleships surrounded them.

Soon, the Yakin Doe had disappeared to the sight against a backdrop of the endless darkness of space and everything began to calm down.

"Change the alert condition to green. The ship is now stabilized and no threat is near." Saitou said, he yawned and got up from his control seat. "I will go rest now. Arthur will take over during my leave. If anything should happen, call me." With that, Saitou Hajime turned and exited the bridge.

Hajime Saitou is a menacing man; he is not effective in times of peace. That is, when there is war and conflict, he is the one whose actions will change the course of the war. Graduating from ZAFT military academy at the age of 18, he had worked his rank up to captain within 6 months. And now, at the age of 21, Saitou had become the captain of the ZAFT's largest supercarrier. As he walked in the corridors towards his room, Saitou's lips thinned into a wolfish smirk that was seen by no one.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

In the hanger of the flagship, the cockpit of the Blaze Zaku opened and from it emerged Athrun. He descended to the floor holding onto a cord from the cockpit. The boy took off his pilot helmet and flicked the neck of his space suit open. Then he stood for a moment and sighed in relaxation, something of a luxury during these chaotic times.

"Athrun." At the sound of his name,he turned and saw his teammate, Makoto Shishio walking towards him in a similar fashion with his helmet tucked under his arm.

"Hi Shishio," Athrun said, brushing a hand through his thick, blue hair,"How's your Zaku warrior doing? I heard they added upgrades to your unit."

"Good as usual, its much more practical than your Blaze Zaku anyways," Shishio said arrogantly and turned his head to look at the blue, custom Zaku for Athrun. "But don't be surprised when your commander-type Zaku is suddenly handed over to me some day. I'm going to make my power known to both the Earth Alliance and ZAFT." Athrun smiled, this was typical of Shishio to be so stuck up even to his team captain.

"Let's go meet Nicol and the team in the living quarters, they should already be there." Athrun said and began walking towards the doors leading away from the hanger. Shishio lingered a little longer then decided to follow.

Athrun and Shishio were both silent as they walked down the long corridor towards their briefing room. They usually had nothing to say to each other other than things relating to their units or the war; Shishio wasn't a talkative person, and he was power hungry, making him a difficult person to get along with.As they approached their briefing room, the doors slid open automatically, both stepped into the room and found their other three teammates already assembled there.

"Athrun!" A green haired boy dressed in red uniform stood up and called over to them as they entered. The other two nodded in acknowledgement.

"Hi Nicol," Athrun raised a hand in greeting, "Hi Yzak and Dearka," he said to the twopilots beside Nicol.

"Yo," the blonde called Dearka waved.

"Good evening Athrun," The pilot with the white hair named Yzak said formally. Athrun took a seat beside Nicol and Shishio assumed a seat next to him. They were the only people in the room as this was a special room dedicated to the elite division of the ZAFT M.S. unit.

"Didn't you bring your Zaku?" Athrun asked after seeing Nicol being the only one in the room not wearing his pilot suit but in his uniform.

"I did, but I boarded my Zaku pretty early so I decided to change into my uniform, that pilot suit is very uncomfortable." Nicol replied, smiling brightly.

"Nicol, your energy gets on my nerves sometimes," Shishio said from beside Athrun with his serious face pasted on, as always, "I can't believe you are a red1 (refer to author's notes)." Nicol laughed good-naturedly.

"Sorry if that bothers you Shishio, I just don't want to always be serious, I find it tiring sometimes."

"Whatever." Shishio brushed it off and began reading a magazine inserted in front of him. After a few minutes spent in relative silence, the sliding door to the briefing room opened and in walked a tall man in a white ZAFT uniform. He had a full head of long, blonde hair, though a silver mask hid his face. From his height and posture, he looked like he was in his mid 20's. The five M.S. pilots in the room stood up at once and saluted the man.

"Good evening captain Le Kluze." Athrun said as the leader of the five pilots.

"Good evening team," the man named Le Kluze walked up to the front of the room and flipped open his notepad, "sit down," he said casually and the boys did as he told. "I'm going to brief you with a very important mission, so listen carefully." Le Kluze said and waited till he had everyone's attention. "PLANT intelligence has acquired information that the Earth Alliance is beginning the development of a special type of prototype M.S. that is potentially much more powerful than our mobile suits, the Zakus and Ginns. The information for this project is so secret that even our best spies are unable to acquire much more information than that the thing exists. We have our own trump cards, but they are still not near operational stages yet." Kluze paused and flipped a page in his notepad, "these new types of mobile suits will likely be used on the assault on our Ptolemaeus lunar base. So if one, or possibly, more than one appears, your mission is to either destroy it or bring it back." Kluze finished and closed his notepad, "any questions?"

Shishio was the first one to stand up, "are their any information on just how powerful this new mobile suit is?"

"No, as I said, our spies were only able to prove the existence of this new unit. Not much more information of it was acquired."

"Captain Le Kluze, is there any appearance difference of this unit from conventional EAMSs that might help us identify one when we see it?" Athrun asked.

"Yes, intelligence from PLANT says that this type of unit has a distinct V-shaped mechanism on its forehead that possibly acts as a radar."

Just then, the lights in the room began flashing red and the battle alarm went off.

"What the!" Yzak said, bewildered, "are we being attacked?" As he said that, the large screen behind Le Kluze lit up and from it appeared the face of Captain Saitou sitting in the bridge. Le Kluze and the Kluze team stood up and saluted.

"Good evening Captain Saitou, are we under attack?" Kluze asked with a slight smirk gracing his lips.

"Kluze, I want you to get your pilots into their Mobile suits and stand by for action any time." Saitou paused as an operator on the bridge handed him a piece of paper. Saitou skimmed over it and lifted his face to the monitor again, "this information from PLANT just confirmed the launch of two Earth fleets towards our Ptolemaeus lunar Base thirty minutes ago, and our timing was off." Saitou rubbed his temples in annoyance, "they have launched two flagships along with the fleet, their approximate flight time will be about 6 hours until they commence attack, so that buys us some time. Prepare for battle in your Mobile suits." With that, Saitou's face disappeared and the monitar shut off abruptly.

"Okay," Kluze turned from the monitor to his team, "standby in your Zakus and prepare to launch."

"Yes sir," the five young pilots said and exited the room quickly. Raw Le Kluze, the captain of the Kluze team, smiled darkly, "So, Hiko Seijurou, you have finally taken the first step to war have you? This shall be interesting."

To Be Continued

Author's notes: Major battle next chapter along with the introduction of the leaders of both PLANT and Earth Alliance, you have already met one of them. After the battle, the story will move out of its introductory phase and move into the main storyline!

1 Shishio referred to Nicol as "red", which was actually referring to the color of Nicol's uniform. IN the ZAFT military, a red uniform signifies the rank of "Elite M.S. pilots." Apparently, Shishio was expecting all elites to be serious as he is.


	5. Phase 2 Epi 2

Declaimer: I do not own the GUNDAM series.

Gundam World: War of the Cosmic Era

Phase 2: Episode 2

The battle for Moon Part I

As the formidable ZAFT Armada was nearing the Moon Base, reports of engagement between the Earth and ZAFT had already reached the bridge of the Flagship Bismarck. Athrun, Shishio, Nicol, Yzak and Dearka sat in their mobiles suits, silently, waiting. The monitor lit up in all of their mobile suits suddenly, from it appeared the always-calm face of Raw Le Kluze behind the mask.

"The situation is worse than expected, the Earth alliance have almost broken through the first line of defense. Our MAC guns are taking out their ships, but notnearly enough to keep them from overwhelming the defense perimeters,you will all have to launch when we are within a distance of 600 from the battlefield because the Bismarck is too slow if we are to make it there in time." Le Kluze paused and looked at his watch, "we are at distance 1200, and you will launch in2 minutes." The commander stopped as an operator spoke something to him, and he turned back to the screen afterwards, a slight smile on his face. "And, no reports of the Earth prototype mobile suits have been detected yet, they are likely to appear anytime, so be careful."

"Yes sir." All five pilots said in unison as they powered up the mobile suits and headed for the launching dock where many Zakus are already going out. Yzak was excited.

"Alright! Finally some real action, no more of that training ground crap they try to teach us!" Yzak gushed his excitement and spammed every mobile suit in range, "Shit," he cursed after realizing that he had used the ZAFT general M.S. channel.

"Roger that." Dearka seconded, his voice could barely contain his glee.

"Stay calm team, don't rush into anything unprepared, I want everyone within my radar range at all times." Athrun said over their private channel, calm as always, which made him excellent leader material, "Me and Yzak will take the front and engage the enemy, Deark and Nicol, provide support firefrom the center, and I want Shishio on the rear, taking out enmy mobile suits from long range, understood?" Fours "roger"s resounded in Athrun's cockpit.

Raw Le Kluze stood in the corridor facing the large screen mounted on the wall, he took out a box filled with a curious-looking type of pills and swallowed 3 of them, he grimaced afterwards.

"I am looking forward to your performance Kluze." he turned as he heard the thin voice of Saitou Hajime behind him.

"Yes sir." Raw saluted formally.

"It would be interesting to see if the rumored prototype mobile suits are real." Saitou murmured wolfishly, "the Earth fleets far out numbers us, so we can't hope to engage in head on battle with them, I'm depending on you. And if the rumoured mobile suitsare real, then letting one escape would be unacceptable, don't you think?"

"Yes sir, I understand, I will bring back a prototype mobile suit for your inspection." Kluze paused and laughed afterwards, and Saitou seem to have caught on to it and he started laughing too.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

"Athrun Zala on Blaze Zaku, please launch immediately."

"Athrun Zala, launching Blaze Zaku!" A loud horn rang in the launch canal signaling that the flight path is clear. The thrusters on the Blue Zaku burst loudly and the unit blasted off quickly, ripping away from the cord holding it to the ship and entering into the space outside where hundreds of Zakus launched from different ships had already began engaging the enemy.

"Makoto Shishio on Gunner Zaku Warrior, please launch."

"Makoto Shishio, launching!"

"Nicol Amalfi on GOUF ignited, please launch."

"Nicol, GOUF, launching!"

"Dearka Elsman, on Zaku phantom, please launch."

"Dearka Elsman on Zaku Phantom, going out!"

"Yzak Joule on Zaku Warrior, please launch."

"Yzak Joules, Launching!"

In a matter of seconds, 5 mobile suits have entered into the battlefield where the light of battle was already seen from a distance of 500 miles. Many warriors were already outside, heading towards the battlefield.

"Alright Team, let's go!" Athrun said and sped off towards thePtolemaeusbase where he was about to meet his biggest rival. The rest of the Kluze team followed him.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXXOXOXOX

Kira Yamato sat on his Strike Gundam silently waiting for orders to go out. But so far, none had come. They had launched their attack on the ZAFT Moon base just 3 hours ago, but neither Mwu La Flaga nor himself had gotten the order from Kenshin to launch yet.

His screen lit up and the helmeted face of Commander La Flaga filled it.

"How are you feeling Kira?"

"I'm fine commander," Kira answered simply.

"Okay, I'll take your word for it, but don't get shot down out there, or you'll have to answer to me." Kira laughed at the commander's remark, surprisingly, he was neither tense nor nervous at all, he just felt calmness now that he is about to go into real battle for the first time.

The commander's face disappeared and replacing it is the operator of the Majestic, "Kira Yamato and major Mwu La Flaga, the ZAFT had sent large amounts of reinforcements, you will have to go out sooner than expected. Please launch now." As she said that, the launch gates above both units opened up. "Depressing pressure on launch pad, major Mwu La Flaga, please Launch, show the ZAFT our power and might."

"Mwu La Flaga, Burning Gundam, going out!" He said and his Gundam blasted off from the floors and headed out into battle.

"Kira Yamato on GAT- X105 Strike Gundam, please standby, installing Launcher Striker Pack."

"What is this Launcher Striker pack, is it the same with my Aile Striker pack?" Kira asked referring the red, winged armor that he used for training a day before as opposed to this green armor that is being equipped now.

"No Mr. Yamato, the Launcher Striker pack is a very powerful gun based armor unit. I am sending over the specs now." A list of weapons and their stats appeared On Kira's monitor. Kira began scanning through them.

"Two multi-barrel Igelstellung (machine guns), two Armor Schneider Assault knife (solid assault knives), combo weapon pod, 120 mm anti-ship Vulcan cannon, 320mm gun-launcher. And a 320 mm hyper impulse Cannon?" Kira ran a power consumption analysis on all of the weapons equipped and suddenly stopped. "The hyper impulse Cannon consumes so much energy it will drain my battery after a few shots with it!" he said crazed to the operator. The red haired girl smiled perkily.

"Don't worry Mr. Yamato, each armor unit is equipped with a battery of its own to extend use and your task is to go out and use up all your energy. The hyper impulse cannon alone has the power of several war ships, so you can do some serious damage to the enemyformations and come back to equip the Aile striker pack for actual combat."

"I see, that makes some sense, is the Launcher pack installed?" Kira asked and got ready to launch.

"Yes, Mr. Yamato, please launch. Show the ZAFT the might of our GUNDAMs."

"Kira Yamato, on Launcher Strike Gundam, going out!"

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Athrun was having a hard time fighting the Earth alliance mobile suits, there seemed to be endless numbers of them, attacking and counter attacking non-stop. They had arrived a little too late as the Earth Alliance forces have already broken through the first line of defense when they got to the battlefield. Now their main task was to concentrate their mobile suits and break through part of the Earth Alliance's power perimeter and relieve the moon base that had tired soldiers who were wary of fighting after a 3-hour defense.

The Kluze team was a elite mobile suit unit in the ZAFT M.S. forces commanded by Raw Le Kluze; their superior piloting skills along with their advanced ZAFT mobile suit ensured many downed units of the enemy as many more fell around them. An EAMS suddenly appeared behind Athrun and sliced horizontally, aiming its beam axe at the cockpit; Athrun dodged the initial attack, pulled out his beam saber and spun around while carving the EAMS into two. He planted the foot of his Zaku into the body of the doomed mobile suit and pushed away before it exploded.

Athrun had almost found no room to operate, energy blasts and missiles criss-crossed his path; if he had stopped for even one moment he would be shot down without a doubt.

"Be careful team! The Earth Alliance is tougher than expected!" Athrun yelled and ran a quickdamage analysis on his Zaku. Parts of his shoulder armour have been destroyed along with a busted circuit in the reactive joint in its left leg, if this went on, Athrun was going to get shot down.

Yzak was racking up major kills with his Zaku warrior, his unit was custom designed for melee combat and Yzak used it to its maximum potential. After launching a round of missiles and taking out several mobile suits, he pulled out its beam saber and pushed the blaster output to maximum and his unit sped into Earth Alliance lines, breaking its formation and defeating several units quickly. But as soon as he had injected him self, he had to retreat when a new swarm of EAMSs fell into formation and rushed towards him. Yzak barely avoided being impaled by a energy blast.

Shishio, in his Gunner Zaku, took out enemies from a distance with his huge long-range rifle. He was mostly safe from EAMSs.

"How many of them are there!" Nicol yelled in frustration over the communicator, "they keep coming!" A grunt and afterwards, an explosion was heard as Nicol defeated another enemy. "I'm not going to be able to keep up much longer if they keep coming in this number!"

"Hang in there Nicol, all we have to do is…"Athrun dodged hurriedly as the alert buzzer sounded again and he had to evade the beam aimed at his cockpit. "…Break through the Earth Alliance defense line."

"I'm going in, my ammo is out." Shishio's rough and determinedvoice was heard over the COM.

"Shishio! Go relieve Dearka, where is he?" Athrun asked when Dearka's signal didn't appear on his radar.

"I'm fine, my Zaku Phantom is more than capable of taking out this trash!" Dearka, arrogant as usual, sounded like he was okay.

"Fine then, Shishio, go back to the ship and replenish your ammo, and Dearka, come back to within my radar range ASAP!" Athrunbarked as he plunged his beam sabre into another enemy. He cursed when he realized that his beam sabre had ran out of energy.

"No, I'm not going to sit on the sidelines! I'm going in." Shishio disobeyed the order and began engaging several mobile suits on the outskirts of the defense line, while Dearka rejoined the team's perimeter.

"Shishio, I don't need this, go back to the ship now." Athrun, obviously frustrated, commanded in a harsh tone as he threw away the hilt of his useless weapon.

"Oh shut up."

The alert buzzer sounded loudly in Athrun's cockpit suddenly and he pulled back his mobile suit. For a moment, all that he could see outside was a red beam, filling his screen; it glowed so red that he could practically feel the immense heat radiating from it. After it passed, he realized that the arm of his Blaze Zaku had been obliterated.

"Damn it!" He cursed loudly.

"Athrun, are you okay?" Came Nicol's panicked voice.

"I'm fine, be careful team, I think a EA warship is in the area judging by that beam." He stopped abruptly as he zoomed in on the source of the beam, "what is that?" In his screen was a mobile suit, one that he had never seen before, that was holding a huge cannon, aimed at him. Athrun pulled his Zaku away from the line of fire, barely avoiding the huge powerful shot as the mysterious mobile suit fired again, if his Zaku's mobility weren't superior to conventional Zakus he would be dead by now. Behind him, several ZAFT mobile suits were vaporized, as they happened to be in the line of fire. Not even atrace of the remains were left after theblast hadtorn apart and disintegrated anything that ithit."That is the Earth prototype mobile suit, that is our target, let's go!" Athrun noticed the V-shaped radar that was on its forehead and sent his Zaku speeding towards it, his other beam saber drawn and ready for battle.

"Yeah! Finally the main player comes out to play!" came Dearka'sanxious voice as him and the team followed.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Kira, after firing his second shot, and taking out another number of ZAFT mobile suits, saw the blue one that had escaped his first and second beam, speed towards him. And all of a sudden, 5 mobile suits were spotted on his radar headed right his way. His alert went off.

"What the…"

"Kira, get out of there!" he heard Commander La Flaga yell over the COM, "you are their target! Retreat!"

Kira, after firing another shot that failed to hit any of the impending mobile suits, turned and began to retreat.

"What the heck!" The mobile suits were still closing in rapidly even when his thrusters were at maximum output,"the Launcher Strike is too heavy, I can't out run them fast enough!" the enemies were almost upon him now. Kira turned around and prepared himself for battle.

To Be Continued

Author's notes: took a little break over the weekend from writing but I'm back again, hope you liked this chapter, it was my thanks to all that had endured through the rather boring introduction stage (judging by the amount offeedback thatI'm recieving… well…). But anyways, I'm still going to keep writing this until I'm finished with it and hand it in to my politics teacher. The next chapter will cover the second part of the battle for moon; keep an eye open for that.

Till next time!


	6. Phase 2 Epi 3

Declaimers: I do not own Gundam Seed...

Author's notes: This is the second chapter in the three chapter series of the Battle on the Moon, enjoy!

Phase 2 Episode 3

Athrun, with his boosters at maximum output, sped towards his target, the prototype mobile suit.

"I don't know what you are, but you are going to be mine!" He cried as he powered up his beam saber and chucked the weapon at the enemy, point first.

The Enemy mobile suit quickly abandoned its cannon and parried the weapon with its free arm while drawing out a beam rifle that hung on its hip. He leveled the rifle at Athrun, who veered his Zaku out of the way quickly as the green beam flashed by his head.

"It's equipped with a Beam rifle too?" Athrun gritted under his breath, "just what is that thing, where does it get all that power!"

"Athrun, stay back and let me handle this!" Came Shishio's voice over the transmission, "your mobile suit is already useless here." Athrun saw Shishio's and Nicol's Zakus zoom past him followed by Dearka and Yzak, the fourteeamtes launched an attack on the enemy mobile suit almost immediately.

"Athrun," this time it was the voice of Raw Le Kluze, "go back to the Bismarck and get repairs, I will handle this."

"Commander Kluze! I can still fight!" Athrun protested quickly and prepared to join in the assault on their target.

"Go back Athrun," Kluze said again, "there is newly acquired information on this mobile suit at the ship. It'll be best if you look it over, engaging this machine blindly is dangerous."

"Yes sir," Athrun, convinced, said and headed back towards the Flagship.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

"Kira!" Kira heard Major La Flaga yell for his name over the communicator, "I'm giving you support, go back to the Majestic and equip the Aile Strike!" No sooner had the transmission cut off did Kira see, outside his cockpit, the commander, in his GUNDAM speeding towards his location, blasting away with his weapon and scattering the four Zakus that were slowly surrounding him. Kira steered the Strike Gundam and accelerated towards the Majestic. "Don't take too long." He heard Mwu say.

"Yes sir."

"Who are these people!" Major Mwu La Flaga asked irritably to no one in particular as the four Zakus surrounded him and began attacking him relentlessly. These four worked as a team and their target switched from Kira to him as soon as he came. The Zaku warrior flew towards him and swung its beam axe at the head of the Burning Gundam. Mwu evaded the slice narrowly and, with a quick slash, dislodged the arms of the Zaku after the pink beam of his saber torn through. Then, Mwu twisted his Gundam and planted his foot in the cockpit of the enemy Zaku and pushed away, sending the enemy flying backwards into another Zaku. Major La Flaga pushed the thrusters to maximum and sped away. The Zakus tried futily to catch up. "Sorry guys, I don't have time to be messing around with you."

_Then why don't you try me, Mwu La Flaga?_

Suddenly and without warning, a voice shot through Mwu's head and he could feel a presence. There were many things around him, fighting and dying, but there was one that he could feel, heading towards him, clearly. Mwu planted his hand over his helmet.

"What is this?" Hesearched on his radarand sure enough, there was a custom GOUF heading towards him. "If I can feel you this clearly then I expect you to feel me too," the major said cautiously, "let's see who you are." With that, Mwu La Flaga headed towards his incoming enemy.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

"Installing Aile Striker pack, please standby," Kira sat in his cockpit silently while the sounds of battle and explosions could be heard outside. "The Aile striker pack has been installed, Kira, please launch."

"Thank you," Kira said as the launch gates began to open, "Kira Yamato, going out!" And the strike shot through the opening above him and once again into the battlefield. A small inset appeared on his field screen and from it appeared the face of Captain Himura.

"Kira," he began calmly, "the first line of defense on the lunar base have been penetrated, now your mission is to attack the radar systems on the lunar base. Major Mwu La Flaga is engaging an enemy right now, so you'll have to go alone, we will give you cover from the majestic, be careful." And the inset disappeared. On his monitor, a map of the lunar base appeared and the position of the radar system was indicated.

At this time, a squad of enemy mobile suits approached quickly. Kira dispatched them easily and headed towards the moon.

"Entering Moon gravity field." The Strike began to lose control as it was sucked in by the gravity of the moon. "Radar station on lunar base, there are 5 recieversin total," Kira read out the information. He positioned his shield in front of his Gundam, "preparing for artificial atmospheric entry." A thin, see through film of gel spread over the front of the Strike as its boosters began to apply thrust towards the moon's artificial atmosphere. The Strike slowly began to heat up and turn red in colorwhen itbegan entering the atmosphere. After a few minutes, theGundam broke through the moon's barrier and entered into the interior and started to cool down.

Kira adjusted his thrusters to atmospheric flight and headed towards his targets, avoiding anti-air turrets and cannons that fired upon him. His alarm suddenly went off and his radar screen picked up 3 heat-seeking missiles approaching fast from behind. Several Ginns were also sighted a few kilometers in front of him.

The Strike's visors lit up to an amber color and its mechanical hand reached for its beam rifle around its hips. The missiles were approaching fast and due to air resistance, the strike can't outrun it. Kira twisted the strike and one missile grazed past him, leaving a thin trail behind. Kira slashed at the missile with his beam and it instantly exploded. The strike emerged from the explosion unscathed while the remaining two heat seeking ballistics exploded.

"Now I have the Ginns to deal with." Kira was about to adjust his aim when an explosion behind him shook his entire unit. "WHAT THE!"

It was a Zaku phantom, and it was heading towards him rapidly.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

_I won't let you attack the lunar base Strike! _Athrun thought furiously. He had sent his beaten Blaze Zaku back to the Bismarck and was briefed about the basic specifications of the Gundam known as strike. He had learned that the Strike Mobile suit was equipped with an advanced type of armorthat used phase shift technology, makingit impervious to multiple physical assaults and can only be penetrated with beam weapons. Athrun had come back in his Zaku phantom equipped with only beam weapons.

"Strike, I will shoot you down."The blue haired boymurmured as he engaged his thrusters and shot towards the Strike, which was hovering over the Moon base with his beam blade drawn, with Athrun in its sights.

Their blades clashed and the units' faces were inches apart as their emotionless visors stared into each other.

"ARGH!" Athrun was on top of the strike, giving him the advantage of gravity. They both fell into a military control tower, obliterating the building into rubble with Athrun on top. Athrun fired up his boosters to keep theGundam pinned under him while the Zaku's left elbow kept the mobile suit down on the ground. The arm holding the Beam Blade whipped out and the tip was pointed towards the cockpit. Athrun stabbed downwards, aiming to kill the pilot.

At the last possible moment, Strike Gundam engaged its thrusters at full power and pushed the Zaku Phantom off of it. Part of the blue cockpit gate of the Strike was destroyed, revealing to Athrun the young pilot inside. He had brown hair.

As Athrun regained his balance, ZAFT mobile suits appeared from all directions, ready to capture or destroy the Strike.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Kira breathed heavily, a narrow brush with death had driven him over the edge; his pupils were not visible now. Kira's eyes were a solid shade of dark violet, revealing no emotions. He surveyed his surrounding systematically, eyes darting from one spot to the next; there were about 20 ZAFT Mobile suits around him, all of which had guns that were aimed at him. Any movement will result in his demise. And so he didn't make a move.

Two enemy Zakus began to advance slowly.

Kira began typing on the monitor keyboard rapidly with stunning precision, not missing even one key.

"Setting all power to phase shift armor, ejecting Aile striker armor and commencing armor self desturct mode," he murmured silently as the wing like armor on the back of the Strike Gundam ejected from the unit and detonated in an instant. The two ZAFT mobile suits near him were instantly obliterated.

The whole area was engulfed in a white light for a few seconds as the remaining concentrated propulsion fuel in the Aile Strike armor thrusters ignited and exploded. Athrun's Zaku raised its arm in front of itself at the last moment and was blown away by the explosion. The remaining mobile suits were either totally destroyed or disabled reyond repair, as they were right at the epicenter of the detonation.

And all was silent.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

When Athrun slowly pushed his Zaku up from the ground, he realized that he was at the edge of a large crater. In the middle was the Strike Gundam, its frame battered almost beyond recognition while it lay facing down. Athrun began heading for the unit when the unit groaned loudly, its gears grinding harshly, and the Strike pushed itself up.

"It, it can't be, half of the base was destroyed by that explosion, my own Zaku, even this far away, is severely damaged, how could that thing still be operating when it was at the epicenter?" Athrun asked incredulously to no one. Then the Strike, from down in the crater, turned its half-destroyed head up in the direction of Athrun's Zaku. "I, I'll kill you right now!" Athrun, with a sudden surge of fear and hatred, aimed his rifle at the Strike and fired. The shot hit the Gundamin the right shoulder and shattered the armor on it. Then the mobile suit changed, all of its colors disappeared slowly from its body, the blue cockpit became a dark gray color and the red waist also became dark.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

The alarm went off in the strike Gundam cockpit after it took a direct hit from the Zaku Phantom to the shoulder. Kira shook his head and looked to the monitor, the battery for the strike Gundam has run dry, the explosion had depleted the rest of his Phase Shift armor and now he had no energy left. Through his camera, he saw his enemy aiming again. Now even physical attacks can penetrate his armor.

Another shot was fired.

This time it was headed straight towards the cockpit.

"I will not die here, you will not kill me."He murmured, "I can't die here,I won't die."Kira pulled the joystick to the left at the last second and dodged the huge bullet with impossible speed. "You will not KILL ME!" He yelled and charged towards his enemy. Two compartments on either side of the Strike opened up, revealing two small, solid assault knives inside. The mechanical hands of the Strike Gundam clasped around both and pulled them out. It brandished the gleaming weapons as it closed the distance between itself and the Zaku Phantom. One knife was struck into the side of the enemy mobile suit in an instant while the other ripped open the cockpit. This time, Kira took in the face of his enemy, a blue haired boy. It was at that moment that Kira noticed the tomahawk rifle, which was aimed at him and leaped away as it fired. The beam ripped through the left arm of the Strike Gundam, melting it in an instant.

Both stopped and gasped for air, preparing for the final face-off.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

"Sir, we have lost contact with the Strike, there was a large scale explosion at the site which it disappeared at." An operator stood in front of Kenshin Himura, Captain of the Majestic and read out the latest report from the battlefield. "But the main radar station was destroyed due to the explosion in the area along with about 15 percent of the ZAFT Lunar base headquarters." She finished and awaited the captain's reply.

After a moment of thought,Kenshin spoke, "Alright, prepare our troops for atmospheric landing. And prepare a search team to find the Strike, I want the Strike to be retrieved even if its been reduced to scrap metal. Let Mwu La Flaga go with them." Kenshin finished and rubbed his sore eyes tiredly. _I'm sorry Kira._

To Be Continued

Author's notes: The next chapter will be the conclusion of the Battle for the Moon. Please tell me if you see any errors in the story or you could just press that review button and tell me what you think. It's like getting a teeth pulled for you but it's like sweets to me!


	7. Phase 2 Epi 4

Gundam World

Author's notes: I got a review asking me if there is going to be any pairings in this story. To tell you the truth, I have never thought of inserting a pairing into this plot. But if you guys want it, I could find Ms. Lacus and Cagalli and Lunamaria and Murre etc. somewhere and ask if they'd like to be in the fic. Lol. So please tell me if you'd like a love story to encompass the plot as it moves along.

Phase 2. Episode 4

"Preparing all units to land, please proceed to your battle station." Units from within the Majestic slowly moved into the many landing pods around the hanger. "Landing mission to begin in exactly 3 minutes. Set all thruster settings to atmospheric flight."

"Lufius, is the power perimeter secure for the landing mission?" Kenshin asked his assistant as the battle went on outside in savagery.

"Yes sir, our space units have secured the area around us." His assistant, Lufius said. "We are ready to commence operation overlord."

"Okay then, move the ship Majestic to the coordinates 190 degrees Z, 24 degrees X and 46 degrees Y into the moon gravity field. Thrusters set at 75 percent. After we have reached the point, commence operation over lord!" Kenshin made a dramatic wave with his hand. "We'll take the moon base and fight back the remaining ZAFT forces in the area!" A huge jolt is felt throughout the ship as it changed its course abruptly towards their specified coordinates. The mammoth of a battleship began moving across the skies over the moon, its surface bumping into countless remain of mobile suits as it went.

"All units stand by, deployment of landing pods have began." The loud speakers throughout the ship sounded loudly as hundreds of pods, filled with four land EAMSs each, began to be released by the large clamps that held them to the ship Majestic and various other carrier ships in the fleet. As soon as they were released, the pods began to be sucked towards the moon much like the Strike Gundam was only a short while ago. Literally hundreds of these pods marked the sky over the ZAFT's moon military base. They quickly descended from the heavens and the pods cracked open to reveal thousands of Military mobile suits raining down from the sky.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

"Athrun," came Le Kluze's voice over the radio as Athrun sat in his Zaku phantom, facing his enemy, the Strike Gundam. "Retreat, go to the space port and launch into space towards the Bismarck immediately. The whole fleet is moving back to the Yakin Doe Base to defend PLANT, we have already lost the Moon base."

"What!" Athrun said incredulously, keeping a wary eye on the deadly unit that stood in front of him. "You can't be serious!"

"I am serious Athrun, the Earth Fleet's flagship is moving towards the Moon's atmosphere as we speak, they are going to land all of their units soon." Kluze paused, letting the situation sink in, and then he spoke again, "get out of there now, there is nothing more we can do."

"But Commander, what about the Strike?"

"Leave it, a search team with a Gundam in it is already heading towards it right now, you won't be able to bring it back."

"Fine, I'm heading back." Athrun made a move to leave, but that triggered his enemy and broke the stalemate between them. The Strike suddenly charged towards him, its menace was terrifying now that Athrun no longer wanted to fight. "Shit!" He said and narrowly evaded an attack towards where he sat. Athrun engaged his boosters at full strength and launched away from his deadly enemy. "You win this time Strike, but I'll shoot you down, you just wait." With that, Athrun disappeared into the thick smoke that clouded the skies over the moon.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

"Kira! Kira, do you copy?" The communicator in the Strike suddenly flared up and Kira heard the voice of Mwu La Flaga over it.

"I'm here commander," Kira said quietly as he faced the direction where his enemy had disappeared. "The Strike is badly damaged though." He checked the status of his machine and found that the overall capability of the Strike had been reduced to 47 percent due to "severe damage".

"I thought as much, we lost contact with your unit a while ago." Major La Flaga sounded a little relieved now. "You're a good pilot, you didn't get shot down." Then the sound of him laughing could be heard. Soon, the thundering sound of several mobile suits flying towards Kira could be heard, the sound was magnified as it echoed through the opening in his cockpit.

Kira opened his cockpit and exited through the opening. After his feet had touched the ground, he realized that this was his first time on the Moon; in fact, it was his first time on another planet! Kira took a deep breath and looked around to see a group of Mobile suits landing near the battered up frame of the Strike. One of them was Major Mwu La Flaga's unit because it was different, it was a Gundam; It's frame wasn't the all-white design of the standard Earth Alliance mobile suits. It was white with red streaks on the wings in the back, a gold hood covered a blue cockpit, and a heavy looking armor hung on its wrist. The Burning Gundam was a formidable machine to simply look at. After they had landed and shut off their units, the pilots emerged from their Mobile suits and rushed towards the Strike while Major Mwu La Flaga walked towards Kira. He whistled, taking in the state of the Strike, as he neared the boy.

"You did a number on that unit," the commander took off his helmet and smiled, "good job, reports say that you destroyed quite a few enemy units."

Kira didn't reply, he was shaken up quite a bit after that encounter with that blue haired boy, who seemed to have been the same age as him, and there was the same desperation in his eyes as in Kira's.

"What's wrong?" Commander La Flaga asked, a little worried.

"It's nothing," Kira began; he lifted up his face and saw the stare that the Commander gave him. "Well, I fought this enemy, he ripped my cockpit open and I, his." Kira stopped for a moment to contemplate what he was going to say, he rubbed a tired hand through his messy brown hair, "Well, I couldn't help feeling that we are somehow the same, he was just like me. So I asked my self, why are we fighting?" The commander's hand on his head suddenly brought Kira to look up.

"Don't worry about your enemy so much," he said, the cheerful smile still on his face, "we are all human beings, that's why you shouldn't know your enemy too well, because you will find things that'll make you weak." The commander said in Ernest, as if he had been through the same thing, many time.

"Commander!" One of the maintenance officers that were charging the Strike's battery yelled out from high above them, in the cockpit, "a message from Majestic, Captain Himura is sending over a shuttle to transport Ensign Yamato (Kira's last name) and the Burning Gundam back to the ship along with you, and we'll bring the Strike with us back to ship for repairs later. Mwu waved a hand at him, signaling that they heard the message, not bothering to yell.

"Well, you better get into the Burning Gundam, we'll head towards the landing point and wait for the shuttle." With that, the two of them headed towards the Burning Gundam and soon were on their way.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Any resistance left within the moon base were soon destroyed or retreated. The remaining ZAFT soldiers that continued fighting were killed quickly as they were outnumbered four to one.

A mere one hour later, the Moon base had been taken and destruction is evident in every corner of the area. Barely any buildings were left standing and the place was covered in rubble, with many bodies buried beneath them.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

A fist was slammed against a rigid locker on the ship Bismarck as the Kluze team changed out of their pilot suits.

"Damn it!" Yzak yelled angrily, "how could we have lost the moon base!" He punched the locker again, denting its previously smooth surface. Everyone else, including Athrun, was silent, because they too, felt the same way.

Athrun began quietly: "Yzak, calm down, it's over now."

"Stop trying to sissy talk to me!" Yzak bit back harshly. Athrun sighed and slid out of his space suit.

As the team went through the corridors of the Bismarck towards their living quarters, one of the large T.V. screens on the walls cut to a special news bulletin. A man was speaking in it, behind him were the banners of the Earth Alliance and many men were clapping as he spoke.

"Hey, that's…" Nicol Began.

"Hiko Seijurou, chairman of the Earth Alliance." Dearka finished for him. This got the team to stop and watch intently as the man known as Hiko Seijurou spoke passionately.

This is what he said:

"The Earth Alliance will not allow the separation of the ZAFT, they are entitled to their freedom, but the Earth will not tolerate any sort of invasion from a state that we control!" The crowd before him, which was composed of thousands of people, cheered wildly. "The arming of the Moon and Yakin Doe by the PLANT is a serious threat to the security of Earth, and the attack on Panama showed the willingness of PLANT to attack Earth. We will no longer tolerate a life in fear of danger from the sky! The recent attack on the Moon is only one in a series of measures that we, the Earth Alliance will be making in order to ensure our own protection and unity of our race!" The crowd cheered again.

"A state that we control! Is he referring the PLANT!" Shishio burst out angrily along with Yzak, "you've got to be kidding! The PLANT will not be controlled by the Earth, I'll make sure of that."

"I hereby send this message to the chairman of PLANT, disarm your entire military forces and come under the protection of the Unified Earth and Space Alliance, the Earth alliance will grant all freedoms previously entitled to the people of PLANT. But, if this ultimatum is not met within 2 days, we will be forced to commence attacks on the remaining military facilities associated with PLANT. All lives lost will mar the conscience of the PLANT officials forever!" The crowd went wild, and they began chanting in a religious fervor.

"HIKO, HIKO, HIKO, HIKO!" The T.V. turned off quickly as the transmission was cut off.

"That Hiko," Yzak said through gritted teeth.

"Don't get so worked up," Kluze said calmly from behind him. "We will win the war, and his death will be our trophy."

end of phase

Author's notes: Please tell me what you think, I just want some feedback to tell me how people arereactingto my story so that I am not left hanging.

And after this chapter, I am ready to move unto the next big plot section. Please keep an eye out for that! Until next time!


	8. Phase 3 Epi 1 Gion

Declaimers: I don't own Gundam Seed; I only own the tiny number of reviews, which I get occasionally for this story. Hint Hint

Gundam World

Phase 3. Episode 1

"We will not surmise to the unreasonable requests made by the Earth Alliance!" Chairman of the ZAFT, Siegel Clyne, appealed passionately on international TV, "the Earth Alliance only attack for the sole purpose of withdrawing the freedom that us, the space dwellers, have worked so hard for after so long! Disarming our militia will only make way for the suppressing dictatorship of the Earth Alliance to reign once more over PLANT. If the Earth does not withdraw its forces from space, we, the ZAFT, have no other option than to fight back savagely in the name of Freedom!"

On the streets of PLANT, people cheered, their newly elected leader, the genius, Siegel Clyne, had taken a stand against the Earth Alliance and is willing to do all that he can to protect them. They were hopeful now, man lined up to sign up as soldiers to fight; mobile suits are churned out of factories 24/7; weapons are upgraded and researched in labs for the sole purpose of having greater killing capacities.

This was not the case on PLANT alone, on the mother planet Earth; men waved the banner of Justice proudly. Under the influence of such a powerful word, they began to develop even more devastating weapons, Gundams.

Both sides were preparing for all out war, it seemed that the death of a whole generation for the idealistic causes of a few politicians is looming just over the horizon.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Kira yawned loudly after hours sitting in the Strike cockpit, configuring the operating system set-up to maximize the unit's capabilities. The unit had been repaired almost completely and was currently sitting in the Majestic hanger. The Strike Gundam was truly a magnificent piece of machinery, as Kira came to realize after going through its many function abilities. It had the most sophisticated super-computer built into it in order to make trillions of calculations each second; it had an A.I. system that, although still in experimentation stage, could possibly help the pilot adjust the settings of the Strike to suit the environment in which it was fighting in; it collected data during each battle and analyses each single detail afterwards to create huge databanks for strategy making and plan out the most effective ways of destroying its enemies. On top of everything else, the Strike had the most advanced machinery to help it move at super fast speeds without breaking down or overheating like conventional units do. It also had a phase shift armor that has never been used before. This armor rendered physical attacks useless and was the mechanism responsible for the change in color that takes place over the Strike's exterior as it powers up.

"How's it going up there?" Kira heard someone say from way down at the Strike's feet. He poked his head out from the cockpit to see a red haired girl looking up at him. She looked small from this height.

"Hi there!" Kira called back enthusiastically. "Are you the communication operator on the bridge? I've seen you before I launched." This was, in fact, the girl that took care of all the communications that went on in battles, she also monitored the conditions of the Gundams that were fighting and relayed messages from the captain to the pilots if there was one.

"Yeah, my name is Flay, are you Kira Yamato, the pilot of the Strike Gundam?" Kira pressed a switch to put the Strike's operating computer into standby mode and slid out of his cockpit. After descending the 15 meters from the cockpit to the floor, he stood right in front of the girl and smiled goofily.

"You got it right, I am, in fact, Kira, was there anything that you needed?" Kira said casually and flicked the top button on his maintenance uniform open, he relaxed afterwards.

"No, not really, it's just that now we have landed on moon and everything is so mediocre, there's not much to do. So I took a little break and came to see the hanger and all the units." The girl named flay looked around the hanger as if indicating her words in action. She was just a finger's width shorter than Kira and had long, shocking red hair that was tied back into a simple ponytail.

"I see, I don't think we lost that many units in the landing mission, so there's still a lot of units here to see."

"Speaking of the landing mission, congratulations on the great achievement on the moon!" She clapped her hands together happily as if cheering him on, "you destroyed over twenty enemy Zakus by detonating your own jet pack, I could have never thought of taking such a risk!"

Kira went silent for a while, and the bright smile faltered a bit as the memories of the horrible death match surfaced in his mind's eye again.

_I don't want to fight_

The face of the Blue haired boy forced its way into Kira's mind again, the look of desperation and fear that clouded over his face made Kira cringe involuntarily.

"Is there something wrong?" Flay's questioning voice snapped him back to reality.

"Nothing, I was just thinking of something." Kira replied slowly.

"Okay, anyways, I was just wondering if you had any time later." Kira's head snapped up so quick that the thought of battles and Gundams were out of his thoughts even before his astonished face was halfway to facing the girl Flay. The red haired girl gave a slight giggle at his awkward reaction, "anyways, we get a week off from our duties and we are all granted the passage into the Moon's metropolis, Gion. I heard it's a beautiful city; maybe we can go and see it sometimes." She finished and waited for a reply while shifting her weight so that she was leaning on one leg, looking relaxed.

Kira, on the other hand, wasn't so loose; he was tense, so tense that beads of sweat began forming on his forehead. It would be fair to say that this was his first interaction with a girl in this way.

"I, I would love to!" He barely managed to sputter out.

"Great!" the enthusiastic girl all but jumped in cheer, "I guess I'll see you tomorrow evening at 18:00 then? The Earth is visible to Gion at around that time and it's supposed to be beautiful!" She turned, smiling happily, "Okay, bye for now!" and she went away after a slight wave.

Kira was left speechless, it was obvious that Flay had planned out the whole thing, even down to getting the time right so they could watch the Earth glide over the Moon's skies, how romantic.

"HEY! Yamato! Get back to work!" Kira turned quickly in fear and saw, to his relief and annoyance, Major Mwu La Flaga in the distance, just emerging from his Burning Gundam, most likely eavesdropping because he had a huge, mischievous grin on his face. "No time to be flirting with girls! The Strike still needs configuring!" That confirmed it, the Major had, in fact been eavesdropping. And with dreaded realization, Kira remembered that he still had the Strike to maintain, he groaned and ascended once again into the Strike cockpit.

A pilot's work is never done.

To Be Continued

Author's notes: A filler chapter or two to loosen up your nerves for the NEXT BIG BATTLE! Where? Not even going to tell! BUWAHAHAHAHA.

And please understand that Flay was only "evil" because she was also a victim, I'm trying to capture the Flay that had not been put through the ordeal that she had been.


	9. Phase 3 Epi 2

Declaimers: I do not own Gundam Seed.

Gundam World

Phase 3. Episode 2

Kira had found himself at a loss, the thing is, and he never had any type of interactions with girls before so now he was troubling as to what to wear or say. Throughout the whole day his body had been tense, tense like a spring, a spring wound so tight that he was practically going to burst any second. Even through all this stress, Kira was still looking forward to visiting the city of Gion.

On Earth, before he had joined the military, he had heard many stories about Gion, the fascinating and alluring metropolis on the Moon. Many ancient stories had told about the tale of a swan princess who had ascended to the moon, signifying man's desire to reach the skies. Even now on Earth, Gion seemed to many as a sacred place where the soil is to be kept clean and more precious than gold. Every so often, the East side of the moon, which Gion is located on, would face towards the Earth, if it were night time, and the moon was visible; people on the Earth would stare up at it in awe. Brilliant lights of many different colours would light up as the Moon faced away from the sun, if one had a large enough zoom on their telescope, he would be able to look through it, and for a few hours, see the faint details of the vast city in its full magnificence that spread through a small part of the East Lunar face.

Gion, named after a famous entertainment district in Kyoto during 19-20th century A.C., suggests the strong theme of mainly tourism and culture in the space city. Ever since the forming of the ZAFT, Earthlings had been unable to access the city through a Spatial blockade by the Space Alliance. But now, after the successful invasion of the Earth Alliance forces on the Ptolemaeus base on moon, Gion had become accessible again. Even the Earth Alliance, in its pursuit of total war, didn't give orders to harm the lunar city with its militia.

Kira felt anxious, in a mere few hours, he would be able to step onto the moon not as a soldier to fight, but as a tourist; to see the city that had fascinated the human race for over 200 years now ever since it's first erection in 2098 A.C. after the proposal of Spatial colonies by many of the major Earth government. He looked at his watch. It read 17:29.

"Half more hour," Kira muttered to himself and pushed himself up from his bed and headed out into the long corridor of the Majestic's living quarters. With the reduced gravity from the moon, Kira moved more freely than he had on the Earth, but this also meant that he had to perform vigorous trainings everyday to keep his body in shape. As the Strike pilot somewhat floated down the hall, his thoughts kept drifting back to that deadly battle in the Ptolemaeus base, the desperation and fear of that time had never left his thoughts.

He shook his head vigorously, trying to get rid of the thought as he spotted Captain Himura coming towards him from the opposite end of the corridor. Kira grabbed onto a handlebar and stopped himself.

"Good evening Captain." Kira said, saluting.

"Good evening Kira," the Captain turned his head slightly and smiled kindly. "I am glad to see that you are in good shape, I hope the mission hadn't shaken you up to much?" Kenshin asked rather politely.

"No sir, all is fine, I simply aim to perform my duties as a soldier as best as I am capable of."

"I'm glad to hear that," Kenshin paused briefly and continued again, "a soldier's career is to fight, other wise there is no use of them. An ancient proverb says: you keep an army for 100 years yet you may only use them for one day." Kira thought about these words, _what was the Captain trying to say? _"But Kira," Kenshin put a hand to the boy's stiff shoulders and smiled reassuringly such as a father would his son, "don't let yourself become consumed by battle, a soldier is a soldier, until he is engulfed in the need to kill and becomes a monster." The captain lifted his gentle hands from Kira's shoulder and waved before continuing his walk down the hall, "I'm glad I had a talk with you Ensign Yamato, and I wish you luck with Flay." Kira stopped, his mouth hanging open. He wouldn't be surprised if the whole ship now knew about the so-called "date."

"Yes sir, thank … you sir." Kira said slowly, his face turning a little red. After the captain had disappeared around the corner, Kira Shook his head and continued down the corridor, feeling a bit lighter, now that he knew someone cared about him.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Uzumi Yula Athha sat at his desk, looking troubled due to the lines that curved downwards around his solemn jaw. He was a great man, he had a head of dark, kingly mane that hung low down over his shoulders, and his eyes were sharp and silently took in anything of influence around him. Anyone that has ever laid eyes on Uzumi Yula Athha was instantly convinced that he must be the leader of a nation. In fact, he was, he was the Lord of Orb, also known as "the lion of Orb" due to his fierce nature and aggressive decision-making. He put down the paper that he was reading, and swung around in his large leather chair to face the huge windows behind him. He rubbed his sore temples, after a few relaxing circles, he gave a sigh.

_The war is beginning _

"Father, is something troubling you?" The voice of his 16-year-old daughter, the Princess of Orb, Cagalli Yula Athha, came from behind him. This brought a slight smile to his lips, not that his daughter could see it. But as Uzumi turned around to face the Princess, he was frowning again.

"Cagalli, how many times must I tell you to not disturb me while I am doing important work." Uzumi sat tall and stared down at his daughter, his guards certainly were rendered useless as their Princess decided to bust into the office of the Lord of Orb.

"Ah daddy, stop patronizing me," Cagalli shook her blonde head as if in disapproval, "I am capable, just as you, to handle some decision for the nation now am I not?"

"A teenager like you will make rash decisions based on your own passions, and that is not what Orb needs in these troubled times," Uzumi searched the deep, amber eyes of his daughter as if willing her to understand.

"Father! I am not a rash teen! I have been raised, from birth, to one day be the ruler of Orb, and I will be a good Queen when that time comes!" Cagalli said passionately, her fists gripping together on either side of her.

Uzumi stared for a moment. "That's just the thing, I have trouble seeing any of the subtle things that they would normally teach you as a princess in you." He laughed good-naturedly at the expense, and anger of his passionate daughter, who all but stamped her feet in frustration. "You are a spirited girl Cagalli, and a good daughter, but the time has not yet come for you to be granted power. I'm sure one day, when times are peaceful, your eccentricity and energy will be able to push Orb further than I could ever do as an aging old man."

Cagalli laughed lightly.

"Orb is the only neutral nation within the whole human race, the rest have been divided into either the Earth Alliance or the ZAFT by now. We are a small nation of islands located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, but our advanced technology makes us a power to be reckoned with even then." He sighed again, as if thinking of a particularly stressful thought, "We have a mass driver and wouldn't allow the Earth Alliance to use it, we have the technology to build more powerful mobile suits, yet we will not aid either the Earth or Space, do you see it now? We are walking a thin line, even one miss step could destroy our nation and our pacifist beliefs."

"Father! You are saying that I will make a mistake!"

"I am not," Uzumi said seriously, "but I am saying that you will not always make the RIGHT decision, part of reason being that you still have a limited knowledge of anything outside of our peaceful nation. If you were to see the horrors of the war for yourself and all the suffering of the people, you would understand why I am so reluctant to let you make some of the decisions yet." Uzumi said solemnly. Cagalli looked hurt.

"Fine then, if you think that I am naïve and inexperienced, I will become strong and mature for you! Farewell Father, I cannot sit in this luxury and enjoy life as it passes by any longer!" She pointed her clenched fist towards her father, "I will depart tomorrow from Orb, and I won't come back until I know what it means to be a great leader!" With that, Cagalli stomped out of the office. After the door had slammed shut, Uzumi shook his head and laughed a little. He pressed a white button on his heavy, oak desk, and heard the voice of the operator at the other end.

"Uzumi sir, may I help you?" A girl's voice sounded from the tiny speaker.

"Yes, could you get colonel Kisaka into my office?"

"Yes sir."

A few minutes later, the doors to his office opened. A tall, muscular man who looked like to be in his 20s walked in, he was wearing a camouflage uniform, his long hair was slightly messy and there were traces of dirt on his broad face.

"Uzumi Sir, you needed my assistance?" He said in his deep voice.

Uzumi stood up from his desk, "Kisaka, I see you are training as hard as ever," that may have sounded like a joke, but no smile came from either men. "As of tomorrow, I want you to accompany my troublesome daughter, Cagalli, as she leaves Orb, to see things for herself."

Kisaka was taken aback, "what? Lord Uzumi, you don't mean that Cagalli means to leave Orb?"

"That is exactly what I am saying, and I want you to protect her while she may just as well get herself into dangerous situations."

"But sir, isn't letting princess Cagalli leave a rather dangerous decision, although I can protect her, but what if the impossible becomes possible? What if she is hurt or is damaged mentally at the things which she might see?"

"Kisaka, Cagalli and I have just had a talk, I can see that she is ready to take power, yet her knowledge of the world is limited. I want her travels to arm her with a clear understanding of the world outside of Orb." Uzumi sat back down at his desk and became silent while staring into Kisaka's dark orbs with his penetrating eyes. Kisaka, taking this as an end to the conversation, began to leave.

"Yes sir, I will do my best even if my life is lost, to protect princess Cagalli." With that, he left. Uzumi sighed, the parting with his daughter had finally come; he had dreaded this day ever since the moment she was born.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Captain Kenshin Himura of the flagship Majestic went and took a seat before the large monitor inside his own living quarters. He looked at his watch. He was scheduled to have a secreted talk with Hiko Seijurou, the Chairman of the Earth Alliance and 17: 30. After talking to Kira, Kenshin had walked into his quarters with only 5 minutes till the talk was to begin. While he waited, the captain poured some tea, which was prepared for him, into a cup and began taking sips after blowing on it to cool it off.

The monitor suddenly turned on and from it appeared the sharp and broad face of Hiko Seijurou.

"It's good to see you, Kenshin, how is my idiot apprentice doing?" Hiko's face lit up with an arrogant smirk.

"It's good to see you too, master." Kenshin replied with a slightly bored face. An outsider might not have known, but Kenshin Himura was actually an apprentice of Hiko's as he was little. Hiko had been a fatherly figure to Kenshin after the boy's family had died from a terrible disease. Hiko had taught the young boy an ancient and deadly sword style that can be hardly be used in the modern day world. But Kenshin had none the less grown an unsurpassed admiration and bond with the very man that was giving him orders now.

"I see that my teachings have not been wasted on your idiotic head, I congratulate you and the eighth fleet on the success on the Ptolemaeus base." Hiko said as the smirk only grew wider.

"Thank you Hiko, the newly developed Gundams have done great amount of damage to the enemy and saved many of our soldier's lives."

"I see," Hiko said, taking in this information carefully, "who are the pilots? I know La Flaga is piloting the Burning Gundam, but who did you pick to be the pilot of the Strike?"

Kenshin laughed as he predicted the reaction of his master, he plugged an electronic device into the monitor and instantly, information was sent to Hiko with the stats and information about a boy named Kira Yamato.

Hiko read the information that appeared on the monitor and smirked his arrogant smirk again, not seeming the least bit surprised. "So you picked a boy as the pilot of our most powerful mobile suit? Why didn't you pick a more… suitable candidate? This 'Kira' hasn't even finished his M.S. training yet, and he's only 15!"

Kenshin didn't reply immediately, but sipped at his tea before it completely cooled down as more information was sent to Hiko. After reading the data collected in the Strike during the battle on the moon, the chairman looked a little surprised. Now, surprising Hiko was almost impossible; he was a man that was feared even by the highest commands of the ZAFT.

"This boy performs much more efficiently than any of our standard pilots it seems," Chairman Seijurou took a second to scan through some more information. "He even thought of detonating his own jet pack while focusing all the energy on his phase shift armour, you certainly made a good choice." Kenshin laughed at the last comment.

"Now now, when was the last time that I heard a compliment from you master?"

"Okay," Hiko had finally finished reading all the data, and looked up, "now let's talk about your next mission." Kenshin put down his cup of tea and sat straight in his seat as if concentrating. The chairman continued darkly, "three more Gundams will be sent to you within the next week, they are code named Buster, Duel and Blitz, I have already picked pilots for these units so you don't have to worry."

"Sir," Kenshin suddenly began speaking in a formal way, like a soldier would speak to his commander, "the Eighth Fleet and the Majestic is enough to defend the moon base, do you mean to say that we will be attacking another ZAFT location soon?"

"Precisely, our intelligence has gathered a large amount of ZAFT military activity on the otherwise civilian star of Heliopolis. We have reason to believe that they, just like us, are designing and building advanced types of mobile suits there. We can't let them have Gundams also, if they do, they are certainly to be mass-produced, and that would lead to even more collateral damage." Hiko's suddenly solemn face became dark and almost scary as shadows played across his broad and handsome features.

"I see," Kenshin frowned, "we mustn't allow that to happen, after all, our goal is to end the war quickly and unify all of the solar system again. If the ZAFT now have weapons like Gundams, then we are in for an ugly and undoubtedly savage war." Hiko sighed in the monitor as his and Kenshin's thoughts matched almost exactly, well he did teach the Majestic's captain all that he knew after all.

"Kenshin, I wish you the best of luck, even though you are not that bright, I hope you succeed, for a unified brotherhood of man."

"I will Chairman Seijurou, I will do my best."

"Well, good bye for now." And the communication was cut and the large monitor turned off.

"For a unified brotherhood of man…" Kenshin played the phrase over his tongue, and decided that he liked it.

To Be Continued

**Author's notes: Now now, I still have that interaction between Kira and the other teens to write about, so look for that in the next chapters. This one is a prelude to what's to come and a defining of the goals of the EA. If you liked it, leave a review; if you didn't like the dialogue or any other parts of this chapter, tell me why. **

**Till next time!**


	10. Phase 3 Epi 3

Declaimers: Gundam Seed does not belong to me.

Gundam World

Author's notes: A little fun and relaxation for the kids before hell breaks loose again.

Phase 3. Episode 3

In anyone's life, there always is a time when, when no matter how successful they are at everything else in life, they feel helpless. Well, this is the very predicament that Kira Yamato is going through as he walked out of the newly established Earth Alliance Ptolemaeus II base and onto a suspended shuttle that would take him, and the group of teenagers beside him, straight to Gion. The group consisted of Flay, a boy named Sai, whom Flay explained to be her fiancée. There was also one named Kazui, who had a strange hairstyle split down the center of his scalp and was mostly quiet. And then there was the couple, the boy's name was Tolle, a tall, blonde boy who talked and smiled and was very energetic. His girlfriend was named Miriallia, she had short, orange brown hair that curled outwards just above her shoulders and would pass as an above-average girlfriend. Normally relationships between the genders were prohibited on a battleship, how they got together was a whole other mystery to Kira.

Kira had been worried that it might just be him and Flay on somewhat of a 'date'. But now, with the appearance of her "fiancée" and the introduction of a group of eccentric teenagers, he relaxed and tried to enjoy his time. The shuttle doors snapped shut behind them and a low humming noise propelled them slowly forward on the suspended steel track.

"Hold on tight!" Tolle said as he wound one arm around Miriallia's waist while the other held onto the handlebar tightly to steady both of them. Sai did something similar with Flay; only he was a little clumsier. The loud speakers in the shuttle suddenly flared and from it came the voice of the driver. Kira tensed, thinking it was a call to battle stations but relaxed after he heard that it was a warning for the passengers to hold on tight. Kazui looked at him weirdly. Then suddenly the shuttle accelerated and shot out of the Ptolemaeus II base, all the passengers, either sitting or stranding, were shot back from the intense rate of acceleration.

Kira took a slight step back to steady himself and turned his head to survey his surroundings. He tipped his head up and spied the speed counter on the ceiling of the blast shuttle; it read "678 mph", almost supersonic. All the seats had already been taken up, leaving his group standing; most of the people on the shuttle were military personnel from the Earth Alliance, taking time off during their week long vacation. They laughed and joked among themselves; most of them were teenagers just like him, Kira wondered the reason for so many youngsters to be involved in what already proved to be a terrible war.

"Wow!" Flay's somewhat high pitched voice made Kira turn his head, he followed her gaze and looked out the large glass windows of their train and saw that they were suspended about 100 meters from the moon's surface and the barren landscape of the Earth-satellite spread out below them. The surface was an endless grayish color with eroded craters marking the landscape; clouds of dusts were swirling everywhere. In the distance, the massive city of Gion could already be seen, stretching larger and larger as their shuttle drew closer and closer to it.

Ever since humans began inhabiting the Moon and deployed the artificial atmosphere around moon, meteors that used to have hit the moon head on were disintegrated in the atmosphere, letting the scarred face of the moon to slowly heal, and now there were strong winds accompanying the atmosphere, making the once uninhabitable moon the first terrestrial planet to be livable.

Kira filtered out the chatter around him and focused on the landscape outside, he could see the receding shape of the Ptolemaeus base behind their shuttle. From this distance, he could see the damage that the Earth Alliance had done clearly; the military base was an ugly sight to behold.

"Welcome to Gion, the lunar metropolis." the loud speakers rang throughout their shuttle car as they approached the city. Its skyline took up most of their view; they would soon be gliding over it. "The city of Gion is a tourist city, filled with endless possibilities. Come and see our fantastic mix of cultures and high-end technology; or visit our biosphere for an outta-this-world experience on nature! We have the best and largest shopping malls and mall complexes in the entire human society, flowing a staggering 2 billion space dollars a day. If you like shopping, be sure to visit the East Gion Minamiza mall and the West Gion mall complex, all of which are easily accessed with the trans-Gion shuttle system." Flay squealed in anticipation.

"I love shopping!" She groped tightly onto the now stiff right arm of Sai and looked into his eyes with a puppy-dog expression. Sai looked away, a terrified expression entering his gaze. His expression was a mix between a last thread of self-control and full-blown panic. It contained that of desperation and Sai looked to Kira as if asking him to help him out of this mess. As Kira would later find out, Flay, when unleashed in any place with the word 'buy' over it, would almost always overspend her so-called budget and burn a hole through Sai's pocket, god bless the poor boy.

"Also come and enjoy our local entertainment districts!" the loud speaker went on, oblivious to the financial damage it had already dealt to Sai. "Geishas, trained in the classical art of dance and singing, will bring you back to the past with their beautiful arts. Also enjoy the world-famous Gion walkway, composed of over ten kilometers of none-motorized passage, tourists can walk over the beautifully laid cobblestones along its whole length and enjoy the fantastic glamour of the metropolis around them. The Gion walkway is separated into four zones, each zone containing one artificially created season, including my personal favorite, the winter zone, where snow falls around the clock all year!" People on the train visibly excited and listened more carefully than before, hoping to catch something else that would impress them. "If you are interested in the wide variety of services in our city that I have no time to describe now, there are brochures available when you unload the shuttle that provides you with a full list of things that you could do while enjoying Gion. Have a nice stay, this is your driver, and it's been good transporting you."

The transmission ended just as the shuttle began to slow down, and gradually stopped silently. Blaring lights streamed in from outside and Kira noticed that they were no longer suspended up in the air but parked in a huge train stations where many more shuttles with tracks leading in all directions were unloading. People bustled everywhere, laughing and joking around as they walked by, very much oblivious to the deadly battle that went on not even a week ago so close to them.

"Okay guys, we better stick together unless we want to get separated." Tolle spoke above the loud chattering around them and the group huddled closer together. They moved with the flow and gradually made their way up a huge set of stairs carved out in marble. Kira looked around, amazed at the huge telescreens that hung on the marble walls that advertised about unheard-of products.

"Oh look Sai!" Flay pointed towards one of the large telescreens, a picture of a Barbie filled its display and its outfit was changing from an apricot colored dress to a blue and elegant Kimono. Sai sighed exasperatedly.

"Flay, aren't you just a _little_ old for that ancient toy?" Kazui said, amused at Sai's predicament. Flay laughed.

"Just kidding."

The group soon emerged from the underground train station to a crowded and bustling street. Kira gasped, he looked up and saw, to his absolute awe, buildings that stretched so far into the sky that its top was almost not visible and the whole structure seemed to bend towards him, looking like they were ready to tip over any second. He had learned some of this in physics class. Because of the moon's reduced gravity, humans could build towers almost twice as tall as is possible on Earth. But now that he stood beneath one in real life, Kira could only watch and drool.

"Wow, magnificent," Kira whispered loud enough for people around them to hear.

"Yeah, it's so … tall!" Miriallia said with the same degree of amazement, finding no better adjectives than 'tall'.

"Ugh, that is scary!" Kazui said loudly, "imagine living at the top of one of these, I would piss my pants just opening the window!" The group laughed at his little joke and then continued on.

On their trek through the busy streets of Gion, Flay was the most eccentric, she pointed from one thing to another, always amazed, her energy inspired and scared Kira, reminding him of his friend Misao back on Earth, who was still in Carpentaria base.

_What are they doing now?_

They had stopped over a dozen times on their way to, in lack of better words, stare at something that amazed them. Huge telescreens hung on the first and second floors of every mighty building and televised eccentric advertisements with beautiful actors or clips of popular T.V. shows. Or anything else that is qualified for public television. The city was a wild blur of all colors of the spectrum and more mixed together, even in the daytime, lights blared from above their heads and lit up the city in beautiful neon colors, Gion was truly a city that never slept. People were dressed in every way imaginable, they had come across men wearing classical European battle armors; or women wearing beautiful silk Kimonos; Or people wearing classical Chinese robes and sometimes even carrying authentic swords, in fact, people in T-shirts and slacks like themselves were a rarity. The thing that amazed Kira and the rest of the gang is that these people weren't even wearing the outfits to show off but it was really their day-to-day outfit. Apparently, the different cultures of the world had been enhanced and encouraged in Gion so much that people literally lived in the pinnacle of the modern world of Gion but at the same time embraced the good aspects of the old ways and created a harmony that amazed any tourist that came through. All sidewalks were covered in luxurious, black marble that reflected light beautifully, some streets even had conveyer belts implanted into the ground that the people could stand on while they were moved through the city without walking. The road was paved in multicolored cobblestones. 'Cars' floated through the streets silently, their fuels were a renewable gas that produced water as their drove by, producing very little amount of pollution if any at all.

"This is true prosperity." Sai muttered under his breath as they strolled along the beautiful avenues, "I would never have thought anything like this was possible," the group looked to Sai as he gushed, "here were are, in the middle of thousands of cars and people and possibly the most advanced city ever, yet the streets are as clean as fresh fallen snow, and the air that I'm breathing is fresher than anything I've ever breathed!" Kira nodded in agreement.

"If only my friends left on the Carpentaria base could see me now." All of them laughed joyfully and continued padding along. Tolle spoke.

"I want to check out that Gion walkway thing! It sounds awesome, let's find a shuttle and go there!" His request was followed with agreement from everyone, and they marched off, with Kira reading the map and in charge of getting them to the closest train terminal.

"We turn left here." Kira muttered to the group and after rounding a corner, their mouths dropped open not for the first time that day. In front of them stood a gigantic dome erected from the lunar soil, its entire outer surface is painted in a type of elegant white paint that reflected the light of the setting sun perfectly, giving it an orange, warm glow. Transportation shuttles hissed like snakes into and out of its docking stations constantly from the tracks overhead, carrying thousands of people. People of all ages and sizes strolled to and from the white dome. Kira lifted a finger and pointed towards the Train station, "we're here. The East Gion millennium station."

After going underground and purchasing tickets once more, Kira's group of teens boarded a shuttle headed for "Grand Gion walkway."

"What time is it?" Kazui asked as they each found seats and sat down. Tolle rolled up his sleeve and read from his civilian watch.

"It's 7:00 PM." A knot formed between the boy's brows. "What's '7:00 PM'?" He asked, trying to remember the meaning of these times. Kira spoke up.

"It is 1900 hours, AM is time in the morning and stretches from 12 AM, midnight, to 12 PM, noon, and after that everything is in PM until 12 AM." Tolle put a hand to his forehead.

"Ah, what a confusing time, why can't they just keep it in military calendar? It's a hundred times easier!" they went on like this until the train began to move. Flay gasped, her seat had moved up all by itself. Sai snapped to attention and grabbed her hand.

"What's wrong Flay?"

"My, my seat just moved up, it startled me." Everyone's seats had, indeed floated after the train had begun moving.

"Oh, no need to worry, it's just the air ride system in these new shuttles, or so I've heard," Miriallia laughed and held onto Flay's hand, "no need to be scared." Kira and Kazui laughed and sat back to watch the sights of Gion as they flashed by outside the large windows. Only in a shuttle suspended high up in the air could one truly appreciate the vastness and magnificence of Gion; the city was literally covered by advanced civilization within every square inch of its boundaries. They could see countless buildings zoom past as they raced through the city, the beautiful sky scrapers occasionally gave way for a park, usually covered in old-growth trees that reached as far as their train tracks and accompanied by artificial lakes glittering in the fast-setting sun to the West. Sai spoke up.

"The sun is going to set soon!" He fished a screen that looked like a palm pad from his shirt pocket and a 3-D holographic figure of a Samurai appeared from the screen. Kira raised one eyebrow and looked at the palm pad closely, wondering what Sai was up to.

"May I help you Sai-san?" The Samurai said in its computer generated low voice while it unsheathed its fake sword.

"Yes, can you pull up the countdown timer for the Earth to Appear over Gion?" Sai asked the A.I.

"Searching…" the A.I. said and numbers raced through its body. After a tenth of a second, it replied. "The Earth will be visible to Gion in exactly two hours and 57 minutes."

"Oh good, then that leaves us with some time to tour around before watching." Sai said and closed the palm pad. The Samurai disappeared and he stuffed the pad back into his shirt pocket.

"What was that thing Sai?" Kira asked curiously.

"Oh, it's just one of the new A.I.s that they developed in the Earth military, this type is made for civilians and I got one after bribing the storage keeper." Sai explained matter-of-factly while a devious smirk crawled into his face.

"Pfft, No wonder I haven't heard about these things." Tolle said while Miriallia listened carefully beside him. He moved in his seat and was behind Sai. "Sai buddy, you have to get me one, you know, for friend's sake." Sai sweat dropped visibly.

"We have now arrived at the Grand Gion walkway station, all passengers wishing to visit please exit the Shuttle by the back doors after it has come to a complete stop, watch your step please." The COM in the shuttle blared and saved Sai from the hook, bribing the storage keeper ONCE was dangerous enough, if they got caught, both him AND the storage keeper would be sentenced to 2 weeks of washroom cleaning duty and Sai would have hell to face from the storage keeper afterwards. They got up and prepared to get off as the shuttle came to a stop.

oxoxoxoxox

For two and half hours, the group simply walked and admired the Gion walkway. They had hastily stopped at a traditional Chinese restaurant and ate with chopsticks while they admired the beautifully furnished interior. Huge parks surrounded some parts of the walkway's length and some were towered over by menacing skyscrapers. They stopped when they entered an area and flakes of snow began to fall.

"What the?" Tolle jumped, "it is SNOWING!"

"Yes!" Miriallia and Flay squealed in delight. Soon, the snow came down in flakes as large as a fingertip and covered the walkways and rooftops in a matter of minutes, transforming the beautiful, but otherwise ordinary houses in the area into a brilliant white vista.

Kira, Tolle, Miriallia, Sai, Flay and Kazui found of set of benches beside the walkway backing onto a lovely traditional dojo and facing a large artificial lake, which had been frozen, and sat down after brushing the centimeter of snow already gathered on its surface.

"Ah, I haven't felt this relaxed ever since I joined the military!" Kazui sat back and voiced his apparent pleasure while his gaze trailed to the cityscape beyond the frozen lake where kids and adults were skating joyously.

"I agree, my body's been tense, not knowing when there might be a drill or what kind of cruel exercises we're going to be put through in the next day by the squad leader from hell." Sai's remark was meant as a joke, but everyone just sat back and smiled at their gentle surrounding instead of laughing out loud; merging into their environment rather than breaking its harmony. The snow now fell around them silently, and its soft flakes landed gently. The daylight faded as the last peeks of the sun disappeared behind the horizon and orange streetlights turned on, the shops and restaurants along the walkway also turned on their brightly colored neon lights and illuminated the streets in a festive mood. Flay suddenly gasped.

"Oh my god." She said silently, one hand over her mouth in awe while her eyes grew large and looked to the now dark sky. Everyone looked, and to his or her awe, there was mother Earth, in her full green and blue majesty, rising slowly over the horizon.

"Wow."

Earth was huge, it occupied a quarter of the sky as it slowly glided from the horizon and stood over their heads. The many people on the streets also stopped and looked up. The Earth was beautiful; it was a serene globe of white, blue and green of countless shades. Its surface was that of a beautiful painting and it slowly rotated, revealing one continent after the next. The stray sun light from behind moon bounced off of the Earth's surface and reflected back to Gion, where it its majesty stopped many in their tracks.

It was strange that people would be staring up in awe when Gion revealed itself to the Earth at night when the Earth would look so much better. And the funny thing is, Kira thought, is that there were probably people staring up at them right this moment. Suddenly he felt an extreme sense of vertigo, not knowing which way is up or down, Kira grabbed onto the edges of his seat a little tighter, afraid of suddenly falling towards the Earth in its vastness.

As soon as it had began, the Earth was gone from their view, it was barely five minutes that the Earth was visible, but it had left a vision in each of the teenagers' minds that night which they will never forget.

end of phase

Author's notes: Hope you liked that, having a little fun and a practice in creative writing, please tell me what you think about it and what I should change in the writing structure or grammar mistakes. Constructive criticism is strongly encouraged!


	11. Phase 3 Epi 4

Gundam World

Author's notes: I am giving Athrun Kira's Gundam, you'll find out what it is as you read this, don't shoot/flame me, as you have been warned, besides, its for good reason, both political and ethical. On with the chapter!

Phase 3 Episode 4

"Athrun Zala of Kluze team, please report to captain Hajime Saitou's office." Athrun was woken from his slumber as the noise repeated. He pushed himself up from the hard-backed bed, which he was previously lying on, and rubbed his tired eyes. He shifted his head to the left and saw the reading of "03:37" on his digital clock. He groaned and rubbed his hand through his ruffled hair; why would the captain want him in his office at this hour? He thought drowsily, what could be so important? "Athrun Zala, do you copy?" The speaker spoke again through the COM.

Suddenly realizing that the CAPTAIN of the BISMARCK was calling him to his office, Athrun snapped to attention and pulled on his uniform hastily. Then he went over the COM and pressed the 'talk' button and spoke into it.

"Athrun Zala here, sorry for the delay, I am on my way." He depressed the button and almost bowed in apology, but remembering that the operator on the other side of the COM couldn't see him, he ran out the door, down the long corridor to captain Hajime's office.

Hajime Saitou sat in his office, his Uniform draped over his shoulders while he read the document that was presented to him on the screen in front of him. He pushed his reading glasses a bit higher onto the bridge of his nose, dark circles hung under his heavy eyelids; a look of annoyance was in his eyes. He scrolled down. Some pencil pushing morons from headquarters had sent him a transmission at 03:30 hours, with a simple _"Please present this to Athrun Zala immediately, TOP SECRET"_ as its name and nothing else. This had better be good.

This is what the document said:

_Greetings Captain Hajime Saitou of the flagship Bismarck:_

_I am terribly sorry to be bothering you at this hour, but the document attached to this transmission is of utmost importance and is highly classified information of the ZAFT military. I, Siegel Clyne, am hard pressed to present you with a weapon, which we have developed but have not used for quite a while now. But after recent debate with the council about the report about the new Earth-Alliance Prototype mobile suits from you, I am sorry to say that in order to off-set the loss of military influence and ZAFT troops brought on by the appearance of these new mobile suits, we must use this weapon and use it now! _

_I am to inform you that we, the ZAFT, have engineered and built a new mobile suit, in the form of a highly sophisticated assault unit, that can surpass all aspects of traditional Zakus and Ginns in all specs of combat abilities. Please read the attached data and present the ZGMF-010 to the pilot, Athrun Zala; we have utmost faith in him that he will use our new weapon to its greatest potential and achieve the Freedom that we so hoped for._

Saitou's left eyebrow shot up and he leaned forward to open the attached data while calling his secretary. After a few seconds of silence, a voice came through.

"Yes sir, may I help you?" The voice of Tokio, his personal secretary, asked through the telecom, her voice sounded sleepy.

"Yes, Tokio, call Athrun Zala for me, let him visit my office ASAP." Saitou said, not taking his eyes away from the screen in front of him as he spoke, his eyes narrowed when the file began loading and schematics of Mobile suits began popping up.

"Now?" Tokio's voice inquired.

"Yes, now, I want our ace pilot in my office now." Saitou said and clicked on the attachment with the transmission. A file opened with a series of schematics and explanations. Saitou's breath caught for a moment.

_What is this?._

A wolfish grin lit up his face a moment later, on his screen, there was schematic of a mobile suit; this unit looked just like the type of EA prototype mobile suit during the attack on Ptolemaeus base, with the V-shaped radar on its forehead and the sophisticated Armour systems.

_ZGMF-010 Freedom GUNDAM. Zero Gravity Mobile Fighter-010 Freedom, General, Unrestricted, Nuclear, Drive, Assault, Module. This is a highly sophisticated mobile suit with advanced capabilities in combat and mobility. A set of wing-like anti-gravitational propulsion systems, code named HIMAT, is attached to the back for the pinnacle of mobility for both atmospheric flight and spatial flight._

_Magnetic joints make it possible for unsurpassed mobility of the mechanical limps, which could not have been achieved before, with the elimination of friction and with it, heat._

_High-impulse rail guns, dual rail guns mounted on the back are able to flex into the ZGMF system when not in use. Fires a series of magnetically propelled, high-speed titanium piercing slugs and can also be used as a charged Balaena plasma beam cannon. Dual hyper impulse cannons mounted at the waist produces two beams of high-energy blasts with effective radius to destroy normal sized warships and battle cruisers._

_ZGMF-010 Freedom is powered by nuclear energy._

Saitou stopped. 'Nuclear energy?' He thought, 'this must be a joke; nuclear energy is no longer available due to the neutron Jammers spread all throughout space. They could have a nuclear power plant, but no energy is going to come out of it.' Saitou continued reading, out of sheer curiosity.

_A new ZAFT technology, a device codenamed "Neutron Jammer Canceller" is able to nullify the effects of Neutron Jammers and thus providing free movements of neutrons within a 2-kilometer cubed 3-D radius. This makes the use of nuclear energy possible, because the ZGMF-010 Freedom is powered by nuclear energy, its phase shift Armour and battery of weapons will never run out of power._

Saitou stopped reading; he had to cut himself off before something even more terrifying presents itself. He couldn't believe it; he didn't just see lines that said that the ZAFT had a new device called the "Neutron Jammer Canceller"!

He had always questioned the intelligence of some of the high commands of ZAFT; sometimes he just thought they were nuts. But bringing about the creation of the Neutron Jammer Canceller is out of even their league. Dreadful possibilities ran through his mind like math problems:

Are the ZAFT preparing to launch nukes at the Earth? What if the Earth gets a hold of the N-Jammer canceller? What if…

"Athrun Zala, Captain Hajime, you wanted to see me sir?" Saitou's telecom suddenly flared and he heard Athrun's voice at the other side of his door.

"Yes, Athrun, come in." The doors slid open with a slight hiss and Athrun entered and managed a decent salute; his gaze was curious and drowsy.

"Well well, the ace of ZAFT," Saitou began with a smirk, "how have you rested since the Ptolemaeus battle? Is everything well?" Saitou leaned back in his chair and pulled out a cigarette from the breast pocket of his shirt, he needed a smoke badly even though he knew he was someday going to pay for it as a hacking and spitting old man. He studied the boy in front of him over the top of his glasses carefully as he lit his smoke.

"I am doing fine sir, thank you for your concerns." Athrun said as he snapped off another brisk salute.

"Mmm…" Saitou took a long, slow drag from his cigarette and exhaled a cloud of smoke before he replied, "well," he chuckled, "you aren't going to okay any longer after I show you this, to put it simply, you'll be getting a new mobile suit Athrun." Saitou finished briskly and turned his computer screen so Athrun could see its content clearly. The boy scanned through the information quickly and stopped as his eyes trailed over the part about the N-Jammer canceller. "You'll be operating a machine that every Earth Alliance Mobile Suit in the solar system will be trying to shoot down that will create a huge boom when it gets shot." Saitou laughed and took another drag from his smoke.

"Sir, this… this can't be real?" Athrun had turned slightly pale while his messy blue hair fell around his face in all its orderly glory, "I mean, our council couldn't possibly be actually trying to use nuclear power?"

"Well, as you can see clearly Athrun, they are. And apparently, you are the only pilot in our forces they could think of who can both pilot the Freedom without blowing it up and be a great propaganda tool at the same time." Saitou shook his head lightly while Athrun dipped his head in resignation.

"Yes sir."

"That will be all, Athrun, you have permission to head back for another three hours of extended sleep," Saitou paused, digging his cigarette into the ashtray forcefully, "you'll need the extra strength after all."

"Thank you sir." The blue haired boy said after saluting once more; he stood for a moment, not moving, and then a look of resignation took over his pale face. Athrun, with one final look at the monitor, turned and exited Saitou's office.

After the doors had closed behind the young ace, Saitou turned his monitor back to face himself and scanned through parts of the file again with interest.

"Tokio?"

"Yes Hajime sir?"

"Get me Le Kluze, I have something to speak to him about."

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

"I can't believe we only got one week off," Kira pouted loudly as he headed towards the Strike alongside Major Mwu La Flaga, "only one week, and its already over, and here we are, heading off to another mission!" The commander turned his gaze sideways to look at the youngster.

"Hey Kira, are you okay?" He began absentmindedly, "I haven't seen you for 3 days and you've changed? Who are you and what have you done with Kira?" Mwu laughed loudly, finding the joke _very_ funny, while he planted his gloved hand into the Strike pilot's lengthening brown hair and ruffled it, causing the younger boy much annoyance.

"Hey, stop that! Is it so wrong for a boy to want to have some fun?" Kira protested, hands waving as reinforcement for what he was saying as if just speaking weren't enough anymore. "And I don't even know where we're heading now."

"Kira, just how many times did you visit Gion with those teenagers and how much caffeine did you consume? And…" Commander La Flaga's voice suddenly became a silent whisper as he leaned in close, "and how many times did you visit the red-light district?"

A loud smacking noise was heard and left Commander Mwu La Flaga grabbing the top of his head and moaning in pain. Kira's eyes snapped to a spot behind La Flaga, where a women, dressed in a clean wash of the standard Earth military issue for Lieutenants was standing with her hand planted firmly at her hips with the other raised. Clearly the very hand that have just smacked Mwu over the head, she had a full head of luxurious brown hair that fell down past her shoulders in sensual waves and a look of annoyance marred her otherwise beautiful face.

"La Flaga!" she began in an exasperated tone, "I am hard-pressed to find our very own lead pilot attempting to corrupt the minds of our young aces with his LOWLY ways!"

The commander turned around fearfully, hands still covering over his skull like an army cap.

"Oh, its you Murre, you didn't have to resort to you VIOLENT ways either! I was just trying to teach our Strike pilot something about the real world!"

"Oh! You are the pilot of the Strike Gundam!" The women named Murre moved forward quickly and shook Kira's hand, "I am Lieutenant Murre Ramius of majestic, nice to meet you! I'm also impressed with the results of your battle during the attack on the Ptolemaeus base!"

Kira couldn't find what to say for a second, the energy that he had projected a moment ago was gone at this onslaught of happening around him.

"Uh, nice to meet you Mrs. Murre," Kira shook her hand and said without thinking much.

"Oh no, she's not married." La Flaga's blonde head popped out from behind Murre and he interrupted.

"You have no room to talk!" The lieutenant shot a withering glance over her shoulder and La Flaga moved back a few steps, his hand moving in front of him for his own protection. Kira, however, was picking up a strange vibe coming from the two adults in front of him; throughout the whole time, from the start of the conversation with the mention of the red-light district by Mwu till now, the two seemed to be flirting more than actually talking to him. A strange smirk glanced Kira's lips.

_Oh sweet blackmail material_

As Murre turned back, her expression changed rapidly as she saw the glint in Kira's eyes and quickly let go of Kira's hand. Then she proceeded to say:

"Whatever the Commander is teaching you, don't listen to him, unless it's battle tips, otherwise, he'll just lead you into a swamp of bad things that you could care less of sorting out later in life!" Murre said as she held both of her arms at the side of her waist in dignity.

"You certainly know a lot about Major Mwu La Flaga MS. Murre." Kira added intonation when speaking the "miss" part. Murre blushed slightly but smiled afterwards.

"Oh, you are all the same; Kira, best of luck!" She said and made her hasty retreat.

"Ahh, she's a good catch any day, don't you think so Kira?" The Strike pilot looked to the Burning Gundam pilot quickly; there goes his blackmail material.

"Ugh, I'm not sure you could depend on me when it came to dating tips Commander." The sly smirk that graced Kira's lips were soon wiped off of them as Mwu engaged in another round of noogying the poor boy's hair. "Ahh stop it!"

"You really have changed Kira, I'm glad to see you like this now, but don't relax, we are going to Heliopolis and if you get too loose, you'll get shot down." Mwu's voice suddenly became serious as loud speakers rang in the hanger.

"All units and personnel please stabilize your positions, Majestic is preparing for take off in two minutes." The thunderous drumming of the gigantic propulsion engines on the Majestic could be heard starting up; this would possibly be Kira's last moments on the Moon in a while where the memories of Gion still ran through his mind.

He had tried to block out the tension that had built up within himself over the past few days by giving himself up completely to the enjoyment of his time off, not even straying near the hanger anytime that he was on the Majestic. He didn't want to be reminded of the savage battles that hid behind the powerful facade of the Gundams and their gleaming armors. But now, as the sound of the engines grew steadily louder, Kira could feel the pool of dread beginning to settle back into his stomach and the dream of a peaceful world like the one in Gion slowly fading; because he was headed off to Heliopolis, where his new enemy waited silently, a Gundam named Freedom.

End of Phase

Author's notes: sorry for the slow update, to tell you the truth, I have been preoccupied with before-the-Christmas-break-massive-amounts-of-school-work-must-ensue for the past week and a half, and organizing and establishing two forums of (one which is very, VERY successful so far) is more work than I thought, but it is fun. I have also paid a friend of mine (whom I have yet to pay hehehehe) to read through Gundam World and give me suggestions on possible improvements to the story, which a writer cannot possibly spot. I have added over two thousand words just by editing and overhauling the first six chapters alone! And now that the major tests and assignments are over and done with for now, I can have a little time to begin writing the next big phase in Gundam World! Hope to see you soon!


	12. Phase 4 Epi 1 Massacre at Heliopolis

Declaimers: I don't won Gundam Seed

Gundam World

Phase 4 Episode 1

Massacre at Heliopolis

The Massive Earth Alliance Armada, composing of the Eighth Fleet and commanded by the Flagship Majestic, sat silently off of the newly built Junius Seven space dock, awaiting orders.

The planet Junius seven had been the first space dock that the Earth had conquered during the first stages of the war. Following its destruction two years before, the Planet had begun drifting towards the debris field surrounding Earth. The Earth high commands saw Junius Seven as a valuable strategic point and began to develop and repair its existing dock along with expanding it until the facility occupied the whole face and orbit of the planet.

No one inhabited J-7, the only people ever on it were military soldiers operating and directing traffic coming and going from the planet.

After the completion of its experimental planetary docking system, the J-7 was pushed back out into an orbit that intersected with the moon within 2 weeks. Many speculations have tried to explain just how the Earth did this, as no recorded data or technology has ever had enough push or pull to move a planet this far this quick; seeing that the moon was 27000 miles away.

"Mr. Himura sir, our transmission is severely interrupted, we cannot make contact with headquarters at all. And there is no information on when our support fleets will be arriving."

Kenshin Himura sat in his seat quietly and scanned over the information displayed on his handheld ship monitor, a slightly troubled expression marking his face.

"We'll stay put, there is nothing we can do now but wait." He glanced over to his operator and she nodded in acknowledgement. "We will wait till fifteen-hundred hours, and proceed with our attack even if no backup arrives."

"Only four hours left before we commence attack on Heliopolis." Lufius appeared behind Kenshin's seat and read from his watch, "is it necessary that we wait for headquarters to send back up at all? I mean, we have enough firepower in the Eighth fleet to take the planet within five hours."

Kenshin sat in his seat quietly still, not acknowledging his second-in-command. He was lost in deep thought. 'Why indeed is headquarters giving us this much back up?' He looked to his palm monitor again and with a click of his stylus, a long roster of incoming EA ships appeared.

It composed of the EA Atlantic fleet, Pacific fleet, and the renowned Lexington fleet, all of them big enough to have flagships. Kenshin's brows narrowed. They are receiving too much backup for a simple planetary invasion mission, what is headquarters thinking?

"Sir, I am picking up heat sources at distance twenty-five hundred, the heat signature appears to be that of the Lexington Fleet, consisting of a fleet of about two-hundred ships of various sizes."

Kenshin looked up and flipped his palm monitor shut with a snap. He stood up and walked over to the radar screen and bent down slightly to have a closer look at the images on the radar.

"Have we established contact with the incoming fleet?" Kenshin asked his operator.

"No sir, due to strong magnetic interference, I have been unable to open a secured channel with the incoming fleet."

"Okay then, up our alert level to condition red," Kenshin stood up straight and said in his usual calm tone. "Have all mobile suits ready to launch, adjust our fleet formation into formation Zeta. Launch scouts and get visual contacts."

"Yes sir, launching scout-type Mobeius."

Shining, white spots sped away from the ship Majestic, past the eighth fleet and winked away into the distance.

"Sir, all units are ready to launch, awaiting orders."

"Good," Kenshin said and went back to his elevated captain seat, he sat down and set his eyes in the direction of the incoming fleet. "Now we wait, inform me of any pre-engagement measures made by them."

"Yes sir."

Kenshin was troubled; they were out in the deep of space, not near any large source of gravity or planet, where was all this interference coming from? He made a mental note to keep up his guard.

The time ticked away slowly, the bridge was thick with tension and anticipation. After five minutes, either the scouts or more information came.

"Captain!" Kenshin snapped to attention as his operator suddenly burst out, "we are picking up a heat source approaching our position, it appears to be a mobile suit!" She paused for a moment, "it's identified as GAT-X207 Blitz Gundam of the Earth Alliance!"

Kenshin suddenly sat very straight. He took a glance at the fleet screen and checked the formation of his armada.

"Blitz Gundam?" Kenshin contemplated for a moment, "is there any large heat source such as carriers near by?" If the Blitz Gundam was here, the other 3 Gundams should be arriving too.

"No Sir, the Blitz is a lone signal."

"Aim all guns at the incoming mobile suit," Kenshin said as the dot labeled 'blitz' quickly approached their fleet formation. "But don't shoot unless it attacks."

"Sir, I'm picking up a faint signal from the Blitz!"

"Put it through, let's hear what he has to say." The captain sat rigid in silent anticipation. Static filled the speakers at first, and after a moment, there was a voice.

"Don't… shoot…Gundam, speak to captain." Then the line went dead.

"Sir, the signal has been lost."

"Open the hatch, let him onto the Majestic. Fire as soon as he enters attack vectors."

The battered frame of the Blitz Gundam appeared on the overhead large screen, only one of its thrusters was lit while the other was crumpled. The Blitz's head was half gone, incinerated. And its right arm was missing with wires and mechanics jutting out of the shoulder where the arm should have been. It limped towards the opening hatch and entered. The hatch closed behind it.

"Sir, the Blitz has been retrieved."

"Good, get our hanger crew to go see who is piloting it and why he is alone."

"Yes sir."

After a moment, Lufius's yell brought everyone's attention, "Captain! The incoming fleet has launched radar-jamming devices! They are preparing for battle, their LZs are hot!"

"Detecting approaching missiles at six o' clock."

"What? Behind us?"

"Sir, a fleet has appeared from behind us, at a distance of seven hundred. Missiles incoming."

"How? What?" The radar was suddenly crammed full of incoming dots labeled "danger, locked on."

"Missiles approaching fast, 3 seconds to impact."

"Evasive maneuvers, fire anti-projectile Igelstelung, valiant, and laser guided intercept-type torpedoes!"

Fire blossomed the sky instantly as hundreds of missiles were intercepted and some of the Eighth fleet ships were hit.

"Launch all units into the vicinity, prepare all guns! Identify the approaching fleets as enemy fleets." White dots instantly began to shoot out from ships and took up their positions around the EA fleet. Kenshin picked up a phone from beside him, "get Ramius on the line." A second later, the voice of Lieutenant Ramius filtered through to the Majestic's bridge and her face filled the large display monitor overhead.

"Commander Himura, is there any position that the Archangel should be deployed to?" She asked, her face emotionless and calculating, obviously a hardened soldier trained for war. Kenshin took another glance at his fleet formation and the enemy fleet before marking a position on the Junius-7 system maps and named it Alpha.

"I need you," Kenshin began, eyes darting from one monitor to the next, "to proceed to position Alpha with Whitcomb's battle cruiser squadron." Kenshin said, not wasting one moment to idle chatter, "flank the fleet from behind us and slow their progress."

"Yes sir!" Lieutenant Murre Ramius's face disappeared and the screen went black.

"What is the distance of the enemy?"

"Distance seven hundred sir, moving into attack distance in approximately twenty-seven seconds."

"Shoot, they are fast," Lufius, who wiped a streak of perspiration from his forehead, said as he looked up from his weapons control panel.

Thunderous booming sounds filtered through the thick titanium armor of the Majestic and into the bridge, cannons were fired, missiles intercepted, and ships were destroyed.

"Get all of my captains on the line!" Kenshin said to his communications manager. Instantly, the overhead screen was filled with the heads of over twenty captains, they all saluted to Kenshin in unison. "Begin moving Majestic forward, all ships fall into attack formation Beta around me and attack as soon as we are with in range. We will close the distance and deliver the first opening salvo!" Kenshin commanded his crew, he was in full battle mode now, not wasting one glance at anything unnecessary, his calm voice was all that kept his crew from panicking, and he knew that. All the captains on this screen gave quick nods before relaying Kenshin's orders to their crew.

"Sir, should we launch the Strike and Burning Gundam?" Lufius asked after typing in a series of commands into the keyboard before him as loud explosions rocked the bridge.

"No, let them stay put, we will not launch the Strike and Burning until we have confirmed what fleet the enemy is and what their specs are." Kenshin's voice was calm yet commanding, his fingers gliding over the control panel under his hand gracefully while his eyes traced graceful arcs across his command panels.

"Captain, we are six seconds from contact!"

"Good, all mobile suits to commence attack on the enemy fleet, command is given to their individual ships." The captain was worried, the scouts still haven't returned yet, that must mean that the enemy had already taken them out, _all of them? _That was hard to believe seeing that scout-type Mobeiuses were designed for long-range reconnaissance and six of them at once is almost impossible to be stopped.

The Mobile Suits and Mobile Armors floating around the Eighth Fleet shot off towards the approaching enemy fleet, hundreds of them. Three seconds passed before all ships, including the Majestic, launched their opening Salvo aimed at the enemy. The captains over on the display screen all yelled "FIRE!" in unison.

For a moment, a flash of white light filled the bridge before the fiber-carbon glass darkened to filter out the overly bright light from outside. Missiles zoomed past from overhead, thousands of green and red beams shot towards the enemy from every ship.

The dark looming shapes of the enemy ships in the distance caught fire as they were hit and exploded.

"Sir, the enemy fleet at twelve o' clock has sustained significant damage from our opening salvo, approximately twelve Aegis class ships have been destroyed, seven battle cruiser class have been destroyed or disabled, and a carrier has also been hit and sustained considerable damage." Lufius whistled long and appreciatively, "The enemy fleet have been identified as the ZAFT 7th expedition force."

"That'll teach tem to attack us out of the blue!"

"Focus Lufius!" Kenshin barked, "Prepare all our interception maneuvers! They will be launching their attack soon!"

"Prepare our Igelstelung!"

"Load the interception pods!"

"Launch all heat sinks!"

"Yes sir!" Lufius's eyes flew back to his control panel and he began typing in a series of launch solutions into the weapons control scheme.

"The ZAFT 7th fleet has moved their Battle cruisers to the front of the formation! They are preparing to fire!"

"Evasive measures!"

Thick, white beams originating from the ZAFT fleet shot past their ships, some were hit and exploded violently.

"Three battle cruisers have been disabled!"

"Good, the damage wasn't as extensive as I thought it would be." Kenshin said to the captains under his command overhead "Prepare our second massed attack, after this, all capital ships are to spread out and commence individual attacks on the ZAFT fleet! Understood? Maintain contact at all times."

"Yes sir!"

Once again, fire shot across the distance between the two fleets and ships exploded. Soon the enemy began to spread out and advance in small groups.

"Okay, begin spreading out and commencing offensive and counter offensive measures!" Kenshin said before saluting to the commanders overhead. "May the might of the EA be with you."

The commanders saluted in return and ships from all around Majestic began to veer away from it, spreading out into a massive formation through space.

"What are the status of Lieutenant Ramius and Whitcomb's ships?"

"They are slowing the progress of the enemy from behind us successfully, we are at a distance of five hundred from their effective attack distance."

"Good job Ramius and Whitcomb, you guys saved the day." Kenshin gave a tiny smile before he focused his attention back to the battle at hand. "Stop the advancement of the Majestic, we will hold our position."

Through the large windows looking outside, beams and missiles crisscrossed the paths of EA and ZAFT ships as they sailed past each other, unloading their payload into the sides of their enemy. Ships exploded violently, killing their crew while the victor moved on to engage in a new battle.

His long, red mane covered a look of pain on the face of Captain Himura effectively.

'_What do we fight for? Why must people die such a meaningless death? Who wants to be incinerated deep in space, away from their home planet?'_

"Captain, the enemy fleet is retreating!" Kenshin looked up from his thoughts. "The fleet we are currently engaging has sustained severe damage and are moving back, additional information from Lieutenant Ramius confirms of the same thing for the enemy from behind us."

"Call back all ships, stop all pursuing measures immediately." Kenshin said.

"What?" One of the captains asked incredulously, a look of anger on his face. "We have the potential to destroy their whole fleet!"

"Come back Whitcomb," Kenshin replied calmly to the angered face of admiral Whitcomb on the screen overhead. "Our primary mission is to invade Heliopolis, and if we continue to pursue, our own tonnage will be damaged further than they already are, and that could hinder our progress in our mission."

"But,"

"That is a command Whitcomb." Kenshin said and turned away, projecting authority and signally the end of the discussion. "All ships! Prepare a damage status report and file them to the Majestic Bridge in ninety seconds!"

"Yes sir!"

"Eighth fleet, retrieve all mobile suits and head back to Junius Seven for repairs and restocking. Operator, get me a status update on the Blitz Gundam in our hanger."

"Yes sir, report says that a pilot by the name of Seta Soujirou, identification number: 076421, has been extracted from the Blitz Gundam cockpit and said 'ZAFT, attacked us.' Before fainting. He is now being tended to in infirmary seven."

Kenshin got up from his seat, rubbing his eyes and ran a hand through his red hair. Then he turned and exited the bridge.

"Lufius, I am going to infirmary seven, you are on duty." And the doors slid closed.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Kenshin was worried; he was rapidly piecing scraps of information together. The boy that he is going to visit said 'ZAFT, attacked us.' While they, the Eighth Fleet was also attacked suddenly and without warning, this is too coordinated to be a coincidence; and the fact that the Blitz was in severe condition when it came to the Majestic alone made Kenshin wonder if the ZAFT had gotten a hold of the Buster and Duel Gundam, which were supposed to be delivered the Majestic together with the Blitz, if so, the Earth Alliance was in serious trouble. And if that's the case, what had happened to the Lexington Fleet and the rest of their support fleets? And how did the ZAFT even get a hold of the top-secret information of the transport of Earth's prototype Gundams? Kenshin was worried; he could practically smell trouble lying in Heliopolis.

He stopped and looked up at the sign that read 'Infirmary-7'. The doors slid open quietly and Kenshin stepped into the room; he looked around and found men lying on the white and clean beds, injured from their most recent battle, moaning and groaning. When Kenshin walked past, they forced a painful salute and Kenshin returned in gesture in respect and making the men lie back down to rest. He continued searching the room and soon spotted a group of nurses hovering around an unconscious boy. A look of pain and tension strung his otherwise boyish face together. Thick bandages were wrapped around his left eye, but other than that, the boy seemed to be okay. A tip glass hung above his bed and dripped a sterile liquid into his body through a tube that was inserted into his vein.

Kenshin strolled up to the boy gracefully and silently; he stood over the sleeping soldier and searched his pained face.

"What is his condition?" Kenshin turned his head and asked one of the nurses.

"He is fine, a little scratch on his head, but other than that, he is pretty much okay physically." The nurse paused to look down at the boy in a motherly gaze. "He fell unconscious from exhaustion, the poor soldier was drained mentally, when the crew from the hanger rushed him in, he was muttering 'ZAFT, attacked us' non-stop."

"I see, he must have seen quite a battle, I'd rather he wake up right now and tell me what he knows, but that'll be unreasonable right?" Kenshin said with a slight smirk. Before the nurse could reply, a soft yet determined voice from behind Kenshin made him turn around to face the speaker.

"Yes it would, I don't care if you are the captain, but you are not going to wake up my patient who needs care right now and nothing else." Kenshin smiled when he saw who was speaking.

"Ahh, Miss Kamiya, I'm glad that we have such a dedicated head doctor on this ship. Maybe someday when I am injured in battle and you will show me the same degree of care?" Kenshin almost laughed at the slightly annoyed expression on doctor Kamiya's smooth and angled face. She didn't reply but walked past Kenshin to inspect the boy Soujirou. She put a delicate hand to his forehead and the other to her own.

"Good, his fever is under control, I think we can relax now." doctor Kamiya said to the nurse, who nodded humbly and hurried away to tend to another patient, leaving Kenshin and the doctor alone.

"You know," Kenshin began, almost teasingly, "this boy has information in him that is vital to our upcoming military operation, and the more information we can get the safer we are from another surprise ZAFT attack like the one that just happened."

"That is your problem," the doctor tilted her head to one side and let a small smirk grace her lips as she surveyed Kenshin's face intently, "my job is to take care of the injured, and I'm not going to let you get your military paws on my patient."

"That's harsh, they may be paws but they are still strong and can protect people like you." Kenshin laughed. Doctor Kamiya shook her head.

"Whatever Kenshin. Now if you'll excuse me, I have more injured soldiers to look after." And she once again walked past Kenshin and towards a cluster of beds that had injured soldiers lying on them while nurses tended to each of them.

Kenshin looked after her and smiled to himself. A groan to his right made him snap his head to Soujirou, who had opened his eyes slightly, revealing pain through his dark pupils. Kenshin bent down and surveyed Soujirou's face.

"Hi, welcome back to the world of the living," Kenshin said with a warm and fatherly expression on his face. "You are Seta Soujirou, the pilot of the Blitz Gundam?"

The boy's eyes were confused, as if he didn't know where he was, or what time it was, or who was this man was that stood over him. Then he muttered a reply.

"Yes, I… need to speak… to Captain Himura." Each word was forced out through tired lips.

"I am Captain Himura Kenshin of the super carrier Majestic, what did you want to talk to me about?"

Soujirou was silent for a moment, as if contemplating if the man above him was lying, but the look in Kenshin's eyes assured the boy. Soujirou groaned and tried to push himself up unsuccessfully; Kenshin quickly brought a strong arm and helped the boy into a sitting position on the bed.

Soujirou saluted formally and shook his head slightly as if clearing his head.

"We were attack by a ZAFT fleet," he began cautiously, "our radar didn't pick them up until they fired their opening salvo, and the whole fleet was destroyed."

Kenshin whistled, "was the Buster Gundam and Duel Gundam with you?"

"Yes, they… captured the Buster Gundam and…" Soujirou paused a long moment, "and… the Duel was destroyed."

To Be Continued


	13. Phase 4 Epi 2

Declaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed, Rurouni Kenshin, Halo, or any other references in my fic.

Gundam World

Phase 4 Episodes 2

"Lieutenant Lufius sir! I am picking up transmissions from the Lexington fleet and the joint federation fleet coming in towards our location!"

Lufius looked up from his notepad and took a second to decipher the information.

"Did you say Lexington and J.F fleet are coming?"

"Yes sir, an armada of approximately one hundred-twenty ships."

Lufius gave a sigh of relief and glanced at his watch, the timer read "00:32:56". Then he laughed.

"And here we were, about to leave without them. Okay then, call the Captain."

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

"So the Duel has been destroyed, and Buster captured." Kenshin repeated as his fingers flashed over the keyboard in front of him. His conversation with the Blitz pilot had gone well, before doctor Kamiya rushed back and forced the poor boy to lie back down and sleep.

Kenshin had spent the past hour writing a fairly lengthy report back to the Earth Alliance headquarters about the revelations in his office. His light was turned down, only the harsh, electric glow of the monitor in front of him illuminating his sharp features.

The talk with Soujirou had given him some valuable information; Kenshin now knew that the ZAFT also had a formidable, operable mobile suit. Soujirou had described it as "dark red, and it had overwhelming firepower, even for the three of our Gundams to face. And its phase shift armor had stayed on even after the unit had used a barrage of high-energy weapons almost non stop for the entirety of the battle."

_Had the ZAFT developed a new power source?_ Kenshin thought as he placed his long fingers under his chin in thought. But with what Soujirou had described, the power source had to be equal or even surpass nuclear energy.

Kenshin stopped typing. _Nuclear power. _Kenshin shuddered,The ZAFT were the ones that launched the Neutron Jammers throughout Earth and Space, it would make sense that they themselves had a counter for it. He started typing again "the ZAFT have possibly developed a counter for the N-Jammer in order to make the operation of this new, overly powerful mobile suit possible, unless they had developed a power source that equaled in power to nuclear energy."

The captain sat back and pressed, "send". He sighed.

_The launch of nuclear weapons, followed by the dropping of the N-Jammer; the bloody war that ensued and_ _the development of Gundams, followed by the appearance of these new, even more powerful ZAFT mobile suits, what would come next?_

Kenshin stopped.

_the destruction of the human race._

"Captain Himura, please come to the Bridge." The female voice of his operator filtered through the intercom. Kenshin sat up, dismissing whatever thoughts he was having, and went out the door. 'This was not a time to be contemplating about the outcome of the war; one can never see a clear picture when they are in the middle of it'. The war had to be stopped and stopped now, if things escalated at the rate, there was no other path BUT human destruction.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Kenshin was calm and collected as he strolled into the bridge to a series of mechanical humming and buzzing noises and the crew of the bridge tended to the Ship's position and condition. He looked at his watch.

00:16:45

"Lufius, we are sixteen minutes from departure, has there been any sign of our reinforcements?" Kenshin asked as he took his position in his captain seat and powered up his control panel. Holographic shapes and numbers danced over his palm and displayed an array of information.

"Yes sir, we have just established contact with the Lexington and Joint Federation fleet about…" Lufius glanced up at the large display clock, "about five minutes ago."

"Ahh, that's good," Kenshin gave an involuntary sigh of relief, "what's their distance and status?"

"They are at distance twelve hundred sir, estimated twenty minutes till join up with our fleet." The female operator said from her station with a hint of nervousness.

"Ah, we can't have that, it'll hinder our progress and give the enemy an additional five minutes to prepare if they know we're coming." Kenshin said in an almost jovial tone. Now that reinforcements had arrived, he felt that a large weight has been lifted off of his shoulders. Kenshin had thought of reinforcements as unnecessary, but after being attacked out of the blue and the information from Soujirou, he was convinced that the enemy had known long ago that they were coming and had made necessary preparations.

_Hiko was right; maybe the ZAFT's intelligence is as good as ours._

Kenshin held up a map and checked the information on the screen. The Lexington and Federation fleet were heading for Junius Seven with Heliopolis behind them, and then would have to turn back to head for Heliopolis. But if they simply changed their course, then the reinforcements would meet up with the Eighth Fleet about seven hundred miles off of Junius Seven, that would save both fuel and time.

Kenshin made adjustments to the travel course for the support fleets and his own fleet, then he marked the intersect point of their fleets as 'lambda'.

"Operator, please send over a transmission to our support fleets and tell them to change their course fifty-six degrees to their left at a slower heading of sixteen-hundred twenty-five miles per hour and wait for the Eighth Fleet at point Lambda." Kenshin paused to considering another factor. "And also, send a transmission to Junius Seven central control, tell them to establish contact with the Lexington and Federation Fleet and send out sufficient fuel using transports to the rendezvous point on the double."

"Yes sir."

Kenshin sat back and waited for another minute.

"Prepare to launch Majestic and Eighth Fleet in five minutes, commence all pre-launch preparations."

"Yes Sir."

"And how are the refueling operations going?"

"Central control has already sent seventy transports to refuel the support fleets sir, they have also sent additional parts for several ship malfunctions in the support fleet."

"Good, engage engines to seven percent power, establish minimal propulsion."

Majestic trembled for a second as its many engines flared and began to slowly push the large flagship forward, away from the Junius-Seven dock. The fleet around it also began to move slowly, its recent injuries mostly healed by hundreds of engineers working overload to repair them, and surrounded the red flagship in its standard formation.

"Set course for Heliopolis, travel time, two hours and thirty five minutes. Overall ship count, reinforcement fleets included, three flagship-class vessels, seventy-seven battle cruisers, one hundred and twenty carriers, two super carriers, two-hundred fifty destroyers and warships and finally, eighty-two orbital ships."

"Yes sir, entering stats into battle-record data. Forty-five seconds to launch."

"May the might of the Earth Alliance be with us." Kenshin announced to his crew as the engines roared and the Flagship, along with the Eighth Fleet, shot away from Junius-Seven and into deep space, towards Heliopolis.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

"All units scramble! Repairs on the double!" The speakers buzzed too-loudly throughout the Heliopolis ZAFT base as the heavily damaged ZAFT fleet entered into orbit around the tiny artificial planet. "All engineers proceed to the launch dock and prepare for ship repairments in orbit."

Mobile suits powered up and went into position around the huge base spanning almost a quarter of the planet itself. Anti-missile turrets loaded up, and battleships launched. Hundreds of civilian ships launched in the distance, where Heliopolis central space dock was located, to evacuated the civilians living on Heliopolis, even the politicians knew that if they didn't get everyone out, this was going to be a massacre in the form of collateral damage.

Athrun Zala woke to this commotion, groaning as he adjusted his position on the hard-backed bed that he was so used to. The three extra hours of sleep didn't do him too much good seeing as how he was still exhausted from the lack of it.

He was given the right to be exhausted while everyone else scrambled around him. Two days ago, Saitou had given him a new mobile suit, or rather, a Gundam. And he'd spent the next two days practically locked up in the cockpit of the Freedom, memorizing every control scheme for the overly complex, nuclear powered machine. At any given point, he was terrified that his unit was going to have a malfunction and blow up, taking half of the Heliopolis base with it. To his relief, it hasn't happened yet.

This was really too much for a mere sixteen year old, as the war dragged on, most of the experienced pilots in ZAFT were killed in action, and the recruiting age got younger and younger, until even a kid like Athrun, who had just reached young-adulthood, had to join. It didn't help though, when Athrun's dad was no other than Patrick Zala, the second-in-command in PLANT, and now Athrun had become a propaganda tool for PLANT also.

"Athrun, get up, Captain Saitou wants you in his office." Nicol's cheerful voice made Athrun open his eyes just a bit. He rolled over and groaned, wanting more sleep.

"Athrun, the CAPTAIN wants you in his office." The blue haired boy groaned again, suddenly, he threw the blanket off of himself and got out of bed in one, unified motion.

"Thanks Nicol," Athrun said drowsily as he pulled on a pair of red pants, standard issue for the elite pilots of ZAFT.

"No problem Athrun," Nicol said and stood for a moment, his usual grin faltering a bit, " I suppose it won't help to run around screaming, but the Earth Alliance is sending a massive fleet to Heliopolis as we speak, they say its around five or six hundred ships!"

Athrun had finished putting on his red uniform and walked out of the door, Nicol following beside him.

"And the expedition fleet just came back, half of their ships gone, and everyone's trying to sort things out and make hasty repairs before the EA comes."

Athrun stopped. He turned and looked at Nicol, who had a tiny frown on his face.

"Half of their ships gone? That's… over one hundred ships!"

"Yeah, exactly! And they were the ones that attacked; it looks like the EA got them pretty good, if the EA attacked now, we would be doomed for sure."

"Don't speak like that Nicol, PLANT is sending over reinforcements as we speak, and" Athrun put a strong hand to Nicol's shoulders, "we must win this, if not… well, it could be very bad for PLANT."

"I know," Nicol replied downcast as they continued walking, "if the EA gets a hold of Heliopolis, they'll cut off our Yakin Doe base to PLANT, PLANT would be left almost defenseless."

"Exactly, so we have to win this. Or defend Heliopolis until help arrives." Athrun was surprised; he was becoming a good propaganda promoter himself.

"Sometimes I'd wish that this damn war will just end, call me stupid, but I wouldn't even mind if PLANT lost, as long as people are saved." The green haired boy, Nicol, dropped his head in shame, "Although I'm never going to surrender to the EA, if just to buy PLANT another day of Freedom."

"Nicol…" Athrun looked to his best friend sadly. Nicol was a great musician, at the tender age of fifteen; he had gained the top honors in the PLANT's youth music competition last year. His skills with the Piano was not rivaled by any other youth, when he began playing, his fingers seemed to dance over the keyboard on their own accord while his body followed gracefully; and there was always a smile on his face when he was near a piano.

Athrun had been to several of Nicol's concerts, and he was convinced that the green-haired boy was destined for fame.

Nicol was just another case of a boy full of potential, who was ripped away from his dreams to fight a war that seemed all too meaningless compared to what they could have done to advance human civilization.

They had reached the doors of Saitou's office on the ground.

"Well, see ya later Athrun, I'm ordered to prepare for the defense of sector six." Nicol waved and sped off down the hallway.

"Nicol! Athrun called after his friend, but he had already disappeared around a corner, "be careful." He looked after his friend for another second before turning around and pushing open the heavy doors that lead into the smoky interior of Saitou's office. The captain was chain-smoking again.

Athrun stopped and saluted, to both Saitou and his team commander, Raw Le Kluze.

"Good morning, Captain Hajime, commander Raw Le Kluze." Saitou shuffled some papers and looked up from them when Athrun spoke.

"Ah, our fighter ace, so, have you mastered the control of the Freedom Athrun?" Saitou asked while Kluze stood beside him and watched silently.

"Yes Sir, I now have confidence in my abilities to pilot the Freedom in combat."

"Good," Saitou said slowly, "now, I'm sure that you have heard about the impending Earth Alliance Armada to Heliopolis?"

"Yes Sir."

"Good, it is uncertain as to when they will appear on our radar, but we know that that time is soon, so I need you to sit out the rest of the time in the Freedom, on the ground."

"Hajime sir, with all due respect, wouldn't it be better for us if the Freedom were to engage the enemy in space rather than on the ground?"

"No, the Earth Alliance has too many ships, and our intelligence say that its commanded by Kenshin Himura, the renowned genius in spatial and landing combat, our fleet will be ripped apart in orbit, and they will launch massive landing missions on Heliopolis, just like they did during their attack on our Ptolemaeus base."

"Yes Sir."

"Now, Athrun, good luck." Kluze spoke up, "we want to see exceptional performance out there."

"Yes Sir."

"You have permission to leave." Saitou said as he looked back down to the paper in his hand, "I am leaving for the Bismarck in a little while."

"Yes Sir." Athrun said once again before turning and exiting the captain's office, anxiety pooling in his stomach.

"Good luck Athrun Zala of ZAFT." He heard Saitou's voice just before the doors closed behind him.

_We'll need it_

To Be Continued


	14. Phase 4 Epi 3

Declaimer: I do not own the commercial rights to Gundam Seed, Rurouni Kenshin, or Halo (the video game and its line of books)

Gundam World

Phase 4 Episode 3

"We are approaching the artificial planet Heliopolis' radar range, time to contact, approximately five minutes and thirty-four seconds at our current velocity."

"Thank you," Kenshin said slowly, "order all ships to stop the advance, we are taking a few minutes to reorganize our entire fleet formation."

"Yes sir."

The Earth Alliance Fleets slowed and stopped their advance, viewed from a distance, it was as if an army of ants had stopped their migration; the Lexington Fleet took up the rear of the entire formation, with the flagship ship, the Dominion, taking the center back of the group of ships. The Joint Federation Fleet drifted off far to the right side of the Eighth Fleet and fell back. The Eighth Fleet, with Majestic positioned near the center of the entire scatter of ships, took up the front and center of the whole assault force.

"Do a check up on all ship statuses and let the damaged ships take the rear of their positions to provide mainly cover fire."

After all preparations have been made, the mighty engines of the Earth Alliance, renamed Joint Expedition Force, flared and moved forward, its hundreds of ships gliding silently through empty space as their target slowly began to appear on their radar screens.

"All ships, full speed ahead, operation Crusade begins now!" Kenshin stood up from his seat, "permission to establish radio contact has been granted to all ships, get the captains of the flagships on the line."

A moment later, the large overhead screen lit up with the faces of five mighty captains filling it. They Saluted to Kenshin and the Majestic captain did the same.

"Good luck to you all, may the war be ended right here and now, for a peaceful and unified human race."

"The same to you, captain Himura, good luck."

Kenshin gave a stern smile before taking his seat once more.

Ships of various classes flew past the Majestic quickly and headed for Heliopolis, their entire lengths dark and concrete, their engines white hot, their weapons aglow with energy.

"It is almost laughable that a fleet of this size is taking on a planet as big as Heliopolis," Kenshin remarked as his own ship sped up to its maximum velocity and sped towards their target. "It could only make one wonder about the validity of the whole war."

Lufius turned to look at Kenshin in the middle of his weapons assessment, he was struck with how the captain suddenly seemed to emit a powerful aura that have rarely surfaced before; Kenshin had a slight smile on his face and his violet eyes focused straight forward, out the windows of the bridge and into the dark of space; as if he was looking past the troubles of a normal person and into the world beyond. Lufius was sure that the Earth Alliance would win, the only question being when.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

"Enemy Fleet detected in Sector six! More enemy Fleets appearing in Sector four and two!"

Arthur, Saitou's second in command on the Bismarck, who was in the middle of relaying power to the different sectors of the flagship, snapped his head up.

"Call Captain Saitou to the bridge now!"

After only about a minute, Saitou walked in, his face stern, his shoulders set. The Bismarck captain took sat down swiftly in the elevated seat reserved for the captain in the middle of the bridge.

"Arthur, finish off the system adjustments and set sixty percent power to our weapons systems," Saitou began blurting out a series of orders as soon as he sat down, "five percent to shield systems and twenty-five percent to propulsion system, leave ten percent power for emergencies." Saitou paused for a moment before continuing, "and also hail Heliopolis central control and let them run the SCMC (super conductive magnetic coil) immediately!"

"Yes Sir, adjusting power arrangements and hailing HCC."

"Put me through to the ZAFT emergency line." A second later, Saitou's face appeared in every ZAFT ship in range.

"All available and operational ships, prepare to launch into Heliopolis high orbit for counter-attack defense! The EA have showed up sooner than we had expected, but if we fight hard and savagely, we will win!"

Hundreds of ships' engines roared to life and the air locks in the Heliopolis atmosphere overhead opened, creating a wide enough opening for a fleet to pass through; air and life support atmosphere poured out of the gap.

"Acquiring zero gravity in launch area, SCMC reaching maximum electric traffic. All ships have clearance to launch immediately."

The immense ZAFT fleet, led by Bismarck, blasted off from the now Zero-gee surface of Heliopolis and into deep space around the planet. So many ships launched at once that it wouldn't be surprising if the massive backwash pushed Heliopolis itself away from its original orbit.

"Adjust your sights to the main fleet in sector six, they should be appearing on your radars soon." Saitou commanded, "get all MAC guns online and ready to fire in ninety seconds, engage all weapons systems on the Bismarck and all ships in our fleet."

"Yes Sir!" Several people on the bridge yelled at once as the Bismarck shook violently from the sudden acceleration due to its takeoff.

"Sir! The Freedom is still on the Bismarck!" Arthur's sudden yell got Saitou's attention in an instant.

"What? He's supposed to be on the ground helping defend the base!" Saitou barked, clearly annoyed.

"Sir, the signature of the Freedom is on the Ship's M.S. roster, he's requesting clearance to launch!"

"What? Get him on the line now!" Saitou said loudly, the he muttered under his breath, "I'm not here to baby-sit."

A moment later, the helmeted face of Athrun, with little clumps of blue hair falling onto his forehead, appeared on screen as he sat in the darkness of the Freedom cockpit.

"What do you think you are doing Athrun!" Saitou barked to the ZAFT ace through his phone, "I gave you explicit orders to stay on the ground!"

"Sir," Athrun began calmly, not at all unfazed by the tight situation that he was in. Or maybe he was just trying to hold in the dam of panic that would overwhelm him, either way, he was calm. "I checked the Freedom's function abilities, and atmospheric reentry and expulsion are two of its _primary_ functions, so I could go to and fro the ground base at will." Athrun paused, to let the words sink in, "I wanted to help out with the uneven odds out in space, because afterall, if the ZAFT defense fleet is completely destroyed, a intact ground base is close to nothing anyways."

Before Saitou could bite out a scathing remark, his operator got his attention.

"Captain! The EA eighth Fleet has already engaged our second attack-patrol squadron at distance five thousand, they are requesting immediate back-up!"

"What are those idiots doing?" Saitou said through gritted teeth, "make them fall back to extra-high orbit around Heliopolis and join the first line of defense, we can't afford to lose any ships inadvertently."

"Yes Sir!"

Saitou looked back to Athrun's calm and waiting face, the boy seemed to know what he was talking about. Suppressing an exasperated sigh, Saitou gave a wave with his gloved hand.

"Athrun, you are going to face my wrath later after we have fought off the EA, you have permission to launch now, but if you get shot down…" the captain didn't need to say more, Athrun got a hint right away."

"Thank you sir! I won't get shot down for the sake of ZAFT!" He saluted and his line was cut off and replaced by the captain of the super carrier Jennisei, who began to brief Saitou with his situation immediately. The Bismarck captain sighed; sometimes he just wasn't paid enough for his work.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

'ZGMF-010 Freedom, you have permission to launch.' Appeared on Athrun's screen, he gave a slight smirk as the final launch status bar said ' runway CLEAR, communication CLEAR, launch solution CLEAR.' Athrun positioned the Freedom onto the runway in the Bismarck dedicated for the fast launch of the elites. Nicol, Dearka, Yzak and Shishio had already gone out before him.

"Athrun Zala, on ZGMF-zero-one-zero Freedom, going out!" the multiple boosters on the wings of the Freedom ignited and the unit blasted out of the hanger like a meteor. It emerged into a space filled with battleships and mobile suits, all of which had their weapons aimed into one general direction, waiting.

The flicker of light in the deep of space in front of them was followed by a series of additional flickers. Seconds later, warship beams blasted through the ZAFT lines. Everything jerked into action immediately. All mobile suits shot off towards the source of the flickers as even more beams shot through their positions. Several ships were hit and debris drifted from their armor in massive chunks.

Within seconds, the ZAFT fleet had begun returning fire in massive abandon, its ships spreading into formation; beams and missiles were aimed and launched.

Athrun sent his Gundam forward with a slight push on the thruster lever, enjoying the smooth and silent acceleration of his new unit. Within seconds, he had overtaken all of the Zakus and Ginns that were rushing at full speed towards the enemy fleet. Most of them had never seen the Freedom before.

As he approached, his radar picked up literally hundreds of enemy mobile suits and warships rushing forward towards Heliopolis, energy blasts instantly crisscrossed his path and Athrun maneuvered the Freedom effortlessly, dodging the attacks with grace and power.

The first wave of mobile suits approached.

"Let's try the multi-lock-on system." Athrun muttered under his breath as the Freedom began rapidly locking on to every target on his radar screen. After that, it said 'lock-on complete.'

All of Freedom's cannons snapped into place around it, two hyper impulse cannons on the shoulders, two hyper-charged rail guns on the waist, balaena beam rifle held in one hand, it fired. Athrun sat in awe as his unit began firing high-energy beams almost non-stop towards his target.

Soon, red arrows marked 'threat' began disappearing from his radar screen, all of which were hit by the powerful cannons of the Freedom as no other ZAFT mobile suit was anywhere near yet.

"Wow." Athrun had no time to admire his new unit as even more objects appeared on his radar and headed straight for his unit. The words 'locked on' appeared on his screen as missiles, marked deep purple, headed for the Freedom rapidly.

"Crap." Athrun cursed as he weaved his unit in tight twists and rolls to avoid the incoming missiles, "I'm not going to be shot down until Heliopolis is saved."

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

"Aile Strike, please launch." Kira acknowledged the operator and powered up his Strike Gundam. With a short burst of his boosters, the Strike lifted off from the hanger floor and shot out into the spatial battlefield where fire and explosion surrounded his unit.

"Kira," came the voice of captain Himura. "There's a unit on our radar in sector six, quite a distance ahead of the rest of the ZAFT defense. It's causing a lot of disturbance to our advance, I want you and commander Mwu La Flaga and Soujirou to go and eliminate the threat."

Kira stopped, _did he say Soujirou? _He considered his chances of hailing the bridge and clearing things up without getting yelled at for distracting the captain in the middle of one of the most important battles, but that turned out to be a very low percentage, so he decided against it.

Soon, two green arrows appeared on his radar, one being labeled "burning" and the other "blitz." Kira maneuvered his Strike over to the two and joined up, he opened a private channel with the Blitz.

"Blitz Gundam, this is Earth Alliance Elite combat force, Kira Yamato, do you copy." He didn't need to say more, a moment later, the channel opened and the surprised voice of Soujirou Seta, his friend who was supposed to be back on Earth, came over the intercom.

"Kira? Are you Kira? Strike Gundam?"

"Yes, Soujirou, it is good to see you again, although I could have thought of a million better circumstances for us to meet again. Like maybe at the mall, or Wendy's. " He sighed, just his luck to have his friend turn up in the middle of possibly one of the most dangerous battles in his, in both of their military careers. Before Soujirou could reply, Commander Mwu La Flaga hailed them both.

"Alright boys, this is it, it's really a shame that it's only the three of us instead of the six that should have been, but that just gives us more work to do, let's go!" With that, the line was cut and the Burning Gundam blasted off towards the location of the 'disturbance'. Kira and Soujirou followed closely behind.

"Holy…" Mwu La Flaga murmured to himself as he approached the enemy mobile suit. The video feed that came onto his screen showed one mobile suit, literally taking on a whole army of EAMSs by itself. Mwu had to say that it was a magnificent mobile suit, it's blue wings maneuvered smoothly behind it to make it dodge the many missiles and energy blasts aimed at it each time. It's many guns flared and fired with amazing accuracy even when it was in constant dizzying motion. He opened a channel with the Strike and Blitz.

"Okay boys, we've got a tough enemy on our hands, be careful." A second later, the muttered 'yes sir's came over the line. As soon as the other two Gundam caught up, they fell into formation and shot towards the new enemy.

The winged Gundam immediately aimed its many guns at them and fired. The Burning Gundam spread the thrusters on its back and shot forward, barely avoiding the red beam and graced past its cockpit. It pulled out its beam saber and waved it after it had come in range of the enemy. The Freedom avoided the slash easily and brought its leg up in a vicious kick, sending the Burning Gundam flying backwards aimlessly in zero gee, when the Burning Gundam was disoriented, the Freedom aimed its beam rifle at its cockpit and fired. The green beam was blocked by the Strike, which flew into its path at the last second and blocked with its shield.

Before the Freedom could take aim with its cannons, the Blitz materialized behind it with its rifle glowing and aimed at the head of the Freedom.

"What the!" Athrun had not seen the black Gundam before it was right next to him. He pulled the Freedom out of the way at the last moment, the green beam from the Blitz's rifle burning part of its head. "I've got you." Athrun muttered, the Freedom twisted around and whipped out his saber and prepared a slash. That is when the Blitz disappeared again, completely, without a trace from his radar. "Camouflage system, " Athrun spoke quietly, "this should be that last Gundam that escaped the raid…" he couldn't think, the Strike was closing in on his position quickly, firing beams and missiles that went too close to being fatal, with the Burning Gundam off to his side, flanking him. "Crap," the Freedom pilot pulled his mobile suit back as a swarm of EAMSs came up and fell into formation; their energy blasts crisscrossing his camera. Seeing no means of victory, Athrun turned after one final round from his cannons, obliterating several EAMSs and retreated towards the Heliopolis first line of defense.

"This isn't victory, it's only a brief cease fire, Strike Gundam." Athrun muttered as the image of the Strike Gundam disappeared from his screen.

"He's retreating, looks like catching up to that unit is out of the question," Mwu La Flaga sighed as the Freedom pulled away from him and exited his radar range within seconds, "damn, that thing is fast."

"All units, prepare for the first wave of assault on Heliopolis' primary defense, set your Mobile suit I.D. to '47936EA' to avoid being targeted as an enemy by our cruisers.

"Okay team, let's go, we could end the war right here, if we conquer Heliopolis, Yakin Doe base will be cut off from PLANT," Mwu said over his intercom, "let's go, for a unified human race!" And he blasted off towards the small planet that revolved peacefully despite the havoc that is being wreaked around it.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

"Captain, I am falling back to the first line of defense, the Freedom has sustained minimal damage, only a damaged defense missile turret on the right side of the head." Athrun said after successfully hailing the bridge of the Bismarck, a magnificent feat since the bridge of the Bismarck should be clogged with transmissions from the whole fleet. He could just make out the immense, looming shape of the flagship as he flew near it.

"Athrun, a damaged missile turret is all you're getting, no more damage to the Freedom will be looked over lightly." Saitou replied gruffly over the COM.

"Yes sir."

"I give you command of the first and second Zaku squadron, their locations should appear on your radar soon." As soon as Saitou had said it, big, solid dots on Athrun's radar flashed and began heading towards Athrun's location.

"Yes sir, I have located the first and second attack squadron, they are heading over to my location now."

"Good, use them well, they are good pilots, and they will die for ZAFT." With that, Saitou's voice stopped and was replaced with static. Athrun sighed, piloting the Freedom was one thing, but having a few dozen men's lives on your shoulders is another.

"Alright, first and second Zaku squadrons, follow me and we will intercept the Nazgul-class cruisers in sector three." He pushed the thrusters to 40 percent, so that his team could catch up, and headed for the group of Earth Alliance cruisers that were closing in on Heliopolis too much, too quick.

As they approached, Athrun pushed his thrusters to maximum and shot off towards those dark shapes of the EA cruisers. As he was within firing range, plasma turrets on the ships took aim and projected thin, laser-fine beams in his direction. The Freedom twisted and avoided them easily.

"Prepare for heavy defense fire as you approach, spread out." Athrun said over the private channel that he had opened with his team. "I'm going in." Acknowledgement lights winked on for every unit and they separated on his radar.

Spinning to avoid the missiles that crisscrossed his path, the Freedom's cannons snapped into place and fired, red and yellow beams tore apart all objects that were in its path and shot towards the starboard side of the closest cruiser. The ship's anti-beam barriers for that particular section, which was hit, flickered and went out, then its hatch opened and its entire number of remaining mobile suits exited and headed for the Freedom swiftly. The Freedom fired again and this time, the beam ripped through the hull of the ship, fire erupted from where explosions ripped apart the ship's side and debris filled the space around it, after a moment, it went out, it had used up all the oxygen. The damaged cruiser aimed its remaining guns at the Freedom and fired.

Athrun pulled his joystick to the left and thrusters to full, sending his unit out of the path of fire quickly. He spun and took aim with his hyper-impulse cannons, then, after the damaged hull of the ship appeared in his sights, he fired again. The red, electric beams buzzed loudly and came in contact with the damaged ship; it burned through the remaining armor of the cruiser, finding its engine.

A moment later, the entire vessel exploded, a blinding light filled Athrun's camera and dulled. Where the ship had been, now there were huge chunks of debris, still white-hot and melting.

A few seconds followed before Athrun's team of Zakus caught up and headed for another cruiser while dispatching the remaining EAMSs that were in the area. The blue haired Freedom pilot stopped, looking at his hands. That was the first capital ship that he had destroyed since joining the military, he wasn't sure if he should feel proud. But right now, he was in shock, stats flashed through his memory from his military training. Approximately 750 people occupy and operate one standard battle cruiser, does that mean that he had just destroyed 750 lives?

"Athrun," Raw Le Kluze, his team commander's voice came over the COM, "good job." He said in a calm voice despite the warping effects of the intercom. "Don't think too much, we are fighting a war. Those people chose to die when they decided to fight for their ideals." Le Kluze said as if he was reading Athrun's mind. "Remember, you are doing this so that they don't kill our people."

"Yes sir!" With more determination, Athrun launched into action again, sealing his mind to all emotions.

_We must fight savagely_

To Be Continued

Author's notes: Hope you enjoyed my attempt at Gundam fighting action, and if you enjoyed it, please review, I'd like some more feedback for my efforts, anyways.

Happy New Years 2006!


	15. Phase 4 Epi 4 Prelude to the end

Declaimer: I do not own Rurouni Kenshin, Gundam Seed, or Halo.

Gundam World

Phase 4 Episode 4

Beginning of the end

The Yakin Doe base of ZAFT seemed curiously quiet, devoid of the usual commotion that often surrounded it. Now, not a single sound was coming from it. The huge asteroid-converted military base, the mightiest of all ZAFT space fortresses, floated through its stationary orbit around Earth silently. In fact, if anyone were to try to receive a transmission frequency from the ZAFT base, all they would get is an automated decoy transmission that played back over and over again.

The ZAFT had taken a huge gamble, if they had failed, their greatest stronghold would be lost. The fact was, almost all of the fleet that were stationed on Yakin Doe were deployed to Heliopolis, the immense fleet of over 600 ships were quietly gliding towards Heliopolis, ready to take their Earth Alliance enemies off guard. The risk had its rewards, if they were to succeed in their operation, the Earth Alliance would have no fleet, and the war would be over after this battle.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

"Captain, our first and third squadrons have already broken through the second line of defense, they are requesting permission to commence the landing mission."

"No, let them keep their ships in high orbit until we have secured the perimeters," Kenshin said promptly and continued reading a report that was faxed in from one of his forward squadrons, ignoring the questioning stares of his tactical assistants. "Hmm…" Kenshin rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he scanned over the contents printed on the paper that he held in front of him, his brows narrowing slightly. He turned to the 3 generals that sat beside him on the bridge, who were there to provide tactical aid to the red haired captain. "It says here that the seventh squadron have also broken through the ZAFT defense line, and the remaining ZAFT are in full retreat into the gravity well of Heliopolis or onto the ground base."

The generals looked at him in puzzlement.

"Captain Himura, I think we should commence our landing operation immediately, to beat the iron while it's still hot." The other two commanders agreed by nodding their heads.

"I agree completely commanders, but I'm skeptical." Kenshin paused for a moment to consider what he wanted to say. "Call me paranoid, but I've fought the ZAFT many times before in space, they are not this easy to beat back." Kenshin said thoughtfully, "it's almost as if they _want _us to land. Feigning weakness, leading us into a trap."

"Captain, may I speak casually?" One of his tactical commanders asked.

"Go ahead commander, let's hear what you have to say."

"Sir," he began. "The success of our mission lies in the speed in which we land, if we do not get the ground base as soon as possible, the ZAFT reinforcements will arrive and corner us while we have no where to rely on for support. We'll be locked out of the castle while their army mows us down, our force may be large, but not nearly large enough to repel two forces attacking at once."

"Ahh, good point." Kenshin said but still wasn't convinced, "but here's another possibility," he said seriously, "the ZAFT are planning something that involves most our fleet landing onto Heliopolis, then, when most of our ships are in low orbit, at the bottom of the gravity well of Heliopolis, they strike and we will have no where to run." Kenshin countered analytically, "according to the battle report, we haven't done disabling damage to the enemy fleet yet, and they are already on retreat, why just hand over Heliopolis?" The bridge was silent for a moment before Kenshin spoke to his transmission officer. "Command the Cruiser-class and Aegis-class squadrons to spread out and eliminate all ZAFT resistance they meet, I want them to secure an area of at least five-hundred kilometers above the landing range ASAP."

"Yes sir, delivering command."

Kenshin looked back to his officers, "well, gentlemen, I've come to a decision." The red-haired captain said with a slight smile on his face. "In five minutes, we will launch our landing operation, accompanied by the Strike, Burning and Blitz Gundam. I'm afraid a defense perimeter is all I can do right now to ensure the security of my forces." The officers stood up from their seats and saluted.

"The might of EA will crush any resistance sir." Kenshin returned the gesture and sat back to assess the battlefield once more.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

"Athrun, our fleet are falling back, I want you to get onto the ground base and help out with the defense immediately." Saitou's voice was heard in the cockpit of the Freedom, where Athrun and his team of Zakus fought an advancing fleet of EA battleships.

"Sir…" the blue haired boy tried to negotiate, but the line was already dead. He sighed and opened a private channel with his team, "Zaku team, we are heading back to Heliopolis, retreat to your landing ships and prepare for the defense of the Heliopolis ground base, the party's over out in space." He checked his team roster; five out of the twelve Zakus in his team had been shot down. Athrun pulled up the list for KIA soldiers and added the five pilots to the list. Then he turned the Freedom around and accelerated towards Heliopolis.

As the Freedom was beginning to be dragged in by the gravity of the planet, huge chunks of molten debris from ships destroyed out in space zoomed past him and he paid careful attention to avoiding them. The ZAFT fleet was nowhere to be seen, there was not a single trace of ZAFT ships on the ground base either as he landed, only mobile suits that all had their weapons loaded and aimed towards the sky.

The alert siren went off, instantly, hundreds of red beams shot in from the sky. As they connected with the ground, violent explosions ensued and buildings were instantly obliterated. Some Zakus that were unfortunate enough to be caught by one were vaporized. The onslaught passed; only to be followed by the looming, dark shapes of landing capsules descended rapidly. All mobile suits opened fire; giant bullets and missiles coated the atmosphere. A few landing capsules exploded violently, like fire raining from the sky. As they reached about 100 meters above the ground, the armored capsules broke apart and revealed hundreds of EAMSs. Within each there were over 10 Earth Alliance mobile suits and they instantly descended upon the ground base, their machine guns blazing. Fire and explosions danced across the whole surface of the base, it was like hell had been recreated.

The freedom shot off from the ground, it's beam saber drawn and its rifle aimed. It's saber torn across several enemy mobile suits as it flew past them, leaving explosions that dotted the sky. Athrun pointed his external camera to the atmosphere and zoomed in.

He stopped.

There were another wave of landing pods, hundred of them. The defending Mobile suits on the ground would never hold up against an onslaught of this size, they would be slaughtered. He opened the ZAFT emergency channel and spoke.

"All ZAFT mobile suits, this is ZGMF zero-one-zero Freedom, fall back to position C and form a defense line there, fall back ASAP." He said urgently and headed back down towards the ground. There was no way he was going to let his fellow soldiers be slaughtered like this.

On the ground, Earth Alliance troops had already landed and were firing upon ZAFT positions in reckless abandon. Zakus and Ginns, all severely battered, were falling back, running backwards and firing on the advancing enemies. Giant Bullets and beams and missiles zoomed past, forming a deadly web across the sky, creating thundering sonic booms as they rushed by.

The Freedom, its wings spread and weapons drawn, fired upon the advancing mobile suits with it's formidable weapons; eliminating swarms of the enemy, but not nearly enough to stop the advance. The Earth Alliance forces continued to land in the distance and all around them. Buildings burned and explosions shook the ground. They continued to advance despite ranks of them already dispatched.

"Fall back, fall back!" Athrun fired one final round from his cannons and turned to retreat further. "Get the MAC guns online, aim and fire!" The Freedom flew back to the closest ZAFT position as a bright light overhead overwhelmed his external sensors. For a moment, there was only static in all of his communication equipments, including his external field projections and radar, he was blind.

A second later, the Freedom automatically adjusted its sensors to the strong magnetic waves that pulsated throughout Heliopolis and his camera winked on to show a barren landscape where there had been hundreds of EA and ZAFT mobile suits before, his radar was empty.

A huge, steaming track cut through the military base, the soil underneath were exposed and burned. The white-hot wreckage of mobile suits lay there, unmoving.

"My god…" Athrun whispered to himself. "Is… is that what the MAC gun does?" He said as his hand shook slightly in shock, hovering over his thruster lever. _At least this position has been saved…_

Just as he thought the trouble was over for a while, explosions instantly resumed. More mobile suits appeared from where the beam of the MAC gun had not reached and continued the relentless advance. "God, are they willing to die like this just for their stupid cause!" Athrun grew furious and sent his Gundam rushing forward, boosters at full blast, the backwash sending waves of dust back into the remaining Zakus as they held their position desperately.

Before Athrun got to his enemy, a beam intercepted his path from above. Focusing his camera on the source. He saw the three units that he fought in space descending onto his location.

"If that's the way you want it, Strike, Burning and Blitz, by all means, come and get it." Athrun recited the three names; intelligence extracted from one of the captured EA prototype mobile suits had given them that much information. He adjusted his scope and aim, then, with a push on his thrusters, the Freedom shot towards its prey.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

"Soujirou, I want you and Kira to go and destroy that MAC gun! I don't want another blast coming from it!" Commander Mwu La Flaga barked over the COM as the three Gundams descended from the sky of Heliopolis. "I'll handle the bird." Not knowing the name of the Freedom, they had casually named it, the 'bird', alluding to the huge, blue wings attached to its back.

"Yes sir!" the Strike and Blitz ignited their boosters and accelerated into enemy positions. After they had left, Mwu La Flaga zoomed in on his enemy, the white, winged Gundam that was rushing towards him at unnerving speeds. As if realizing what the Strike and Blitz were trying to do, it stopped and turned. Before it rushed to flank the two EA Gundams, Mwu sent his mobile suit into its path. The Freedom stopped.

"You are not getting away from me, don't take me lightly." Mwu said before engaging his thrusters and moving forward, moving in a graceful arc towards his enemy, gaining speed all the while. The Vulcan cannon on its head were shooting away at its target furiously while its weapons were drawn and ready.

The Freedom fell back; facing the Burning, while ignoring the metal slugs that bounced off of its phase shift armor harmlessly. The rail guns at its waist snapped into its full length and fired. Two blazing, yellow bolts zoomed towards its enemy. The Burning Gundam twisted and avoided being fatally wounded, the bolts leaving two deep, red-hot dents on its shoulder where it brushed past. The Burning drew its rifle and fired, aiming for the Freedom's cockpit. The white, winged Gundam twisted and spun, avoiding the beams skillfully; with a sudden boost from its thrusters, it shot forward, taking the burning by surprise. Its saber drawn, the Freedom stabbed towards the cockpit of the Burning Gundam.

A twist to the left was all that saved Mwu La Flaga from being impaled by the giant beam that now torn across his whole unit, its heat melting its enemy. The cockpit of the Burning Gundam suddenly buzzed with huge electrical sparks, the command screen blinking with the words 'DANGER EJECT'. Mwu stepped on a pedal and his Gundam boosted forward, pushing the Freedom back along with it, not allowing it to escape. Maneuvered his Gundam so that its mechanical hands grabbed onto the head of the Freedom, Mwu pressed a switch. The hand around the Freedom's head turned gold from heat, and squeezed.

'SELF DESTRUCT'

5

4

3

2

1

"Hmm," he laughed, "I told you, you won't get away from me in one piece. I am a man who makes the impossible, possible." His helmet cracked.

A blinding explosion was seen from the ground, it's area spreading and covering everything in its path in white-hot plasma. Moments later, the shredded, and coal black frame of the burning Gundam dropped to the ground in pieces with a huge thud, sending up columns of dust.

'Neutralized' appeared on Athrun's command screen.

"Damn it." He cursed; the last, desperate attack by the Burning Gundam had surprised him. Completely destroying his heads-up sensors. Now there were only front images taken from the cameras on the Freedom's chest, which made a huge blind spot overhead. His controls cracked with electric sparks from the damage.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

'Burning, down.'

Kira looked down at his control display. _What?_

"Kira!" Soujirou's voice sounded over the intercom, "my unit says that the commander's Gundam is down!"

"Yes Soujirou, me too…" this was not a time to grieve and Kira knew it. He had known that the Commander's Burning Gundam, along with the Strike and Blitz, wouldn't stand a chance against the overwhelming power of the 'bird', but destroying the MAC gun would saved hundreds of EA personnel. Keeping his voice carefully controlled as not to crack, Kira said, "Soujirou, let's go, the commander did this for us and the victory that we will achieve from this." With that, he pushed on the thruster levers and sped off from the huge smoldering wrecks of what used to be a ZAFT MAC defense gun and Zakus. Soujirou followed suite. "The ZAFT troops are falling back, we have to continuing pushing in and eliminate all remaining enemies. We can win this Soujirou, just a bit more."

"Yes," Soujirou said and barely had time to avoid a trail of machine gun fire that tracked the path of the Blitz. "What the!"

A swarm of Zakus flew towards their location; they fell into formation and proceeded on interception vectors. The Strike readied its shield and boosted into the path of the Zakus. With a few swipes of his beam saber, the inferior ZAFT mobile suits were quickly dispatched and exploded in midair.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

"All ZAFT personnel, evacuate from Heliopolis immediately." Athrun stopped in his tracks, he hailed the central control. There was no response. "All ZAFT personnel, evacuate Heliopolis immediately." The message repeated in the calming female voice.

"What is this?" the Freedom pilot tried again and there was still no response. "Had the central control been breached by EA forces?" in the distance, he could see ZAFT mobile suits entering into launch pods and blasting off while some remained to hold their last position. The Earth Alliance's advance had been overwhelming; there was nothing that he could have done to prevent it.

"Heliopolis is set to self destruct in ten minutes, countdown starting now."

"WHAT!" Athrun pulled on the thrusters and his Gundam came to a dead stop, hovering high above the ground. He hailed the bridge of the Bismarck. There was only static. "Answer god damn it!" Athrun pushed the transmission button violently, but nothing came over the line; a furious fist finally smashing it after there was still no response. "What are they thinking!" He sighed explosively, turned the Freedom towards the atmosphere and accelerated.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

"Captain!" the operator of the Majestic yelled to their captain. "I have intercepted a coded message from the central command coming from PLANT that's directed to all ZAFT units!"

Kenshin's head snapped up from his seat.

"What did you say! Decode it now!" As Kenshin said that, his normally purple eyes changed, gaining a deadly amber hue. He had known this was a trap; most of his troops were on the ground, Kenshin knew he wouldn't like whatever would become of the message. He stood up briskly and rushed to the front of the bridge where his operator sat and leaned over her chair. Hundreds of codes were present on the screen and she worked furiously to decode them; her fingers blurring over the keyboard.

"Captain Himura!" the fleets monitor suddenly yelled from his position. "ZAFT fleet detected at ten o' clock, ship count…" he paused to check if what he was seeing on the screen were real data, "… approximately… six hundred ships… Beta-class fleet." His face went pale.

"Get me on the Earth Alliance Emergency channel immediately! Deploy all spare landing pods to the surface of Heliopolis on the double!" Kenshin barked, his face furious.

"Sir, you are connected. Range, three-thousand." Kenshin rushed back to his seat and picked up the communication handset, pulling on the cord roughly, he spoke into it while glaring at the heads up display that showed countless ZAFT ship signals advancing towards his fleet.

"Attention all ground-based Earth Alliance units." He began urgently, "This is captain Kenshin Himura of the flagship Majestic, proceed to landing location and evacuate from the surface of Heliopolis immediately!"

"Sir! I have decoded the message! It says," she tried to say something but no words came out, "Heli… Heliopolis is set to detonate in four minutes thirty two seconds." A deathly hush fell over the bridge like a thick layer of snow.

"Heliopolis is set to detonate in four and a half minutes! I repeat, Heliopolis is set to detonate, stop the advance immediately and proceed to your nearest exit location now!" Kenshin slammed the phone down on his seat. "Command the starboard fleets to retreat and join up with the Joint Federation fleet to defend our side, permission to use the Tannhauser beam is granted. All ships, prepare for reentry pod receiving, did they eject all of their landing pods!"

"Yes sir, the remaining spare pods have already been sent into the atmosphere."

"Captain!" The slightly panicked yell from Kenshin's operator snapped him to yet again. "I'm receiving a transmission from the Lexington fleet! They are detecting an incoming batch of missiles from the direction of PLANT!." Kenshin almost dismissed the information until he heard what she said next.

"They, they are carrying nuclear warheads."

To Be Continued

Author's notes: the next chapter will be the final chapter for this story, yes, it is ending.I am most likely going to write an epilogue and Sequel to this.

Since that is no longer school project, I am planning on starting them sometime in the future, haven't decided on it yet.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter, I kind of wrote this whole thing through a semi-writer's block. I usually wouldn't write during a writer's block, but with the impending deadline that is approaching too quick for my liking, I decided to kill my brain cells and beat it till it spat out word after word.

Expect the mother of all final battles next chapter. Which side will be massacred? And how will this end?

Anyways, I'd like to thank Crimson Blademaster on his continuous support for Gundam World; he really helped a great deal by giving me lots of helpful and kind comments! So Thanks!

And also, I'd like to thank my friend, "System Crashed" for his truly constructive criticisms that probably scared off a lot of readers but still helped me edit and re edit this fic till I am satisfied with it! And also, I totally owned him on Halo online!

Thanks also goes out to Ultimate Coordinator Berserker for pointing out that Kira's eyes are actually purple instead of brown, which I have corrected with great shame.

And also, Reader 007's kind words were a great compliment for my fic, which has helped fuel my desire to write it.

And finally Will The Watcher, who submitted the first review for my fic and commented on my relatively tolerable grammar.

Thanks everyone!


	16. Final Episode The Final Stretch

Gundam World

Phase 4 Episode 5

The Final Stretch

"What!" The captain of the Majestic visibly flinched. "Get me online with the Lexington Flagship." A moment later, the image of the captain of the flagship filled the overhead screen.

"Sir," he said, addressing Kenshin, "I have ordered all ships to commence evasive maneuvers and activate temporary energy shields. We are doing our best at intercepting the incoming missiles, estimated impact time is twenty-five seconds."

Kenshin walked over to his seat and ripped the communication handset from its resting place. "How much damage do you estimate to your fleet?" The captain of the Lexington flagship stopped and said solemnly.

"Eighty percent, nuclear explosions are much more powerful in space and my fleet will suffer severe damage, possibly disabling our ability to function as part of the Expedition force."

"Damn it," Kenshin's fist clenched till his knuckles turned white, he saluted to the captain, "please do your best to limit the damage of impact, we are counting on you." The captain of the flagship saluted in return and the line went dead. "Command all ships to set up energy shields, I don't care how much energy it takes up."

"Yes sir!"

"Captain, we must communicate this information to the Earth high council immediately!" One of his tactical commanders spoke up, sitting on the edge of his seat, "PLANT is not supposed to have nuclear capability! They must have developed devices that can override the effect of the Neutron Jammers, this could result in the elimination of Earth's military capabilities!"

"I am aware of that commander, but our priorities right now is to fend off the oncoming onslaught." Kenshin paused for emphasis; they really didn't have time for this. "If PLANT are firing nukes at us, then they must no-longer see any need for secrecy." His teeth clenched and grinded in frustration, his form rigid and dangerous, "and I'm sure Earth sensors can pick up on nuclear explosions in space." The bridge was in complete silence. "And if we continue to make diplomatic decisions, our entire fleet will be wiped out." The commanders bowed their heads as if in shame, they were. "We have to fight savagely." A blindingly bright light, like a mini-sun, shone in from the direction of the Lexington fleet. It was white at first. After the initial light, a sea of red spread out in the distance, ships burned before oxygen was depleted.

"Sir! Impact detected, radiation reading… one-hundred-forty megatons!"

"Give me a damage report now."

"Yes sir, fifty-six percent of the entire fleet are disabled, one-hundred-ninety plus ships are destroyed."

"One hundred- forty megatons, my god." Someone muttered from behind Kenshin, but he ignored it.

"Are there any more incoming missiles?"

"No sir, none detected."

"What is the status on the retrieval of our mobile suits?"

"Five percent retrieved sir. Enemy fleet from Yakin Doe is commencing attack."

"How are the Joint Federation fleets faring?"

"They have sustained over ten-percent damage, but most ships are still operational."

"Okay, command all ships in the Eighth fleet to adjust their headings and merge with the J.F. fleet, we are going to annihilate the enemy from Yakin Doe, also give transmission to Earth Central control that Yakin Doe base's fleet has left the fortress."

"Yes sir."

"Captain, do you think it's a good idea to risk our fleet in the engagement with the enemy now?" Kenshin turned, with dark amber eyes that spoke of fury.

"What do you suggest we do commander?" He said menacingly, "Watch our fleets be destroyed?" The T.C. backed off.

"Sir! I am receiving transmission from the remaining Lexington fleet of sightings of the Heliopolis defense fleet. They are exiting from the gravity well of the planet and commancing attack on our rear!"

"What? So that's why they had retreated, to shield themselves around the planet and wait for the show to start." Kenshin laughed, a dangerously low laugh, "Very well, we'll give them a taste of what the Earth Alliance can really do." Kenshin ran the data through his head quickly.

_A fleet of six hundred from Yakin Doe outnumbered them. Along with a fleet of about two hundred circling them in from the rear, one of their main assets have been damaged by a nuclear assault._ _And the general outlook was bleak._

"All fleets, full speed ahead, I want the archangel and Kashima to cover our rear and slow the advance of the H.D fleet, tell all ships that our goal is to deal significant damage to the Yakin Doe fleet before engaging the pursuing enemy, we must regroup!"

"Yes sir."

"Aim all available Tannhauser cannons at the Yakin Doe ships, I want our side to deliver the opening salvo, not them!"

"Understood."

All ships aimed and opened fire. The Tannhauser was a beam cannon, the most powerful beam cannon available, it delivered destruction equaling half megaton, dealing out damage equaling a mini-nuke. It was red and wide, with enough effective radiuses to take out standard warships on impact. Cannons melted after delivering its overcharged payload. Huge electric beams rushed and impacted into enemy ships, instantly vaporizing whatever it touched. A sea of explosions was sighted in the distance. Multiple ship readings disappeared from the radar.

"Launch all anti-beam capsules, and prepare for the second salvo!" The immense number of ships in the Earth fleet formed a long cavalry in space while the ZAFT fleet took on a similar formation. Viewed from a distance, it was like an 18th century battle of opposing factions, their guns poised, and ready to take the lives of their enemy.

"FIRE!" A second wave of beams and missiles launched from the Earth Fleet, and impacted on the enemy. Not a moment later did a counter attack, a wave of energy blasts from the ZAFT fleet rush past them. They drilled into the front of Earth ships, skewering them right through to the end and causing the ships to explode a second later.

"FIRE!"

"FIRE!"

"FIRE!" The exact commands were given on both sides, the Earth and ZAFT. The same people on both sides gave the commands, and the destruction were creatures of the same kind.

Men screamed as their bodies were engulfed in fire and plasma, instantly vaporizing their remains. Though their screams of agony were drowned in the sea of yells.

In the middle of his commanding the fleet, Kenshin stopped and looked up. On his display screen, the planet known as Heliopolis shook as its surface turned white-hot. Countless explosions dotted its evaporating atmosphere, most likely Earth and ZAFT mobile suits trying to escape their fate. A second later, a giant fissure cut right across from the middle of the entire length of the planet; fires of hundreds of kilometers high erupted from the fissure like a giant claw that destroyed anything it touched. Then the flames went out abruptly.

A second later, the planet exploded, its entire surface cracked and burned, its atmosphere completely burned away. The planet was engulfed in a white orb of plasma. It was a man-made sun if one hadn't known better. A second later, the light was gone. Replaced with an empty, debris filled space where a Planet had been a few minutes ago, a true man-made supernova.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

The broken frame of the Strike floated through the debris filled space, the gravity that pulled on it a moment ago was completely gone, replaced by a series of small gravitational fields all around it that were created by the larger chunks of debris.

Inside the cockpit, Kira had cried. While escaping the raging atmosphere, his grip on the Blitz Gundam had slipped, and he had watched his childhood friend be sucked in by the gravity, falling aimlessly, it's broken arm and shredded frame reaching out in desperation. What remained of its 'eyes' flickered bright green as a last burst of power were sent to the thrusters, but nothing could save it as it continued to fall. A moment later, the planet had exploded. Obliterating most of the Strike's armor, leaving no trace of anything that had been there.

Kira had sent out endless signals and transmission to the Blitz, but all that he received in return was static. He doesn't know the fate of his fate and of Captain Himura. He was utterly and completely alone.

A sudden alert sounded as an enemy unit was identified and approached his location on the radar. Kira zoomed in on the distant image. It was the 'bird', now labeled 'Freedom' on his radar screen. Just like the strike, the planetary explosion had burned most of its armor away.

Kira's eyes narrowed, his shaking fist clenched around his thruster grip and pushed forward violently.

"It's all your fault…" he said quietly as the Strike rushed towards the Freedom, which became rigid and drew its beam saber. "It's all you and your people's fault!" The Freedom's thrusters pushed it forward; ready to engage the surviving enemy. "I'll kill you!" Kira yelled explosively, an electric spark, like a shock, ran through his brain. He suddenly felt strange and cold power that began to spread out through his whole body, and his emotions died down, being replaced with the one thought of killing his enemy. His soulful, purple eyes becoming flat and dangerous as they darted from left to right, up and down; carefully analyzing every bit of information in cold calculation.

_I am going to kill you_

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

"Dearka?" Athrun tried to hail his team, "Nicol?" There was static, "Bridge? Do you copy?" Static. Suddenly, a faint voice resounded in his cockpit.

"A, Athrun?"

"Nicol! You are still alive? Where are you?" No longer had Athrun said that then Nicol's blade Zaku emerging from behind a large piece of what used to be Heliopolis. The frame of his unit looked like it was ready to fall apart. Athrun laughed, he couldn't speak better about his own unit's condition either. Nicol's Zaku began gliding towards him with short bursts from its thrusters.

'ENEMY APPROACHING, ENEMY APPROACHING.' Athrun's head snapped to his radar screen to see one red dot speeding towards him, labeled "Strike."

"No, not him, not now." He muttered under his breath, he hailed Nicol's Zaku. "Nicol, retreat for now, I'll handle him."

"Athrun, I can help." With that, Nicol's boosters ignited to full blast and accelerated forward.

"No!" Athrun yelled in protest, sending his Gundam after the Zaku.

Nicol got to the Strike first; he swung his unit's beam axe, a straight chopping slash. Athrun could see the futileness of it as the axe swung down, Nicol was a good piano player, but his unit was no match for a mobile suit like the Strike.

The Strike, despite its pitiful condition, blocked the attack with one mechanical arm, while the other drew a solid switchblade from its hip and, with one swift motion, jabbed the blade straight into the cockpit of the Zaku.

Nicol's line went dead, to be replaced with static.

Athrun watched in horror as the Zaku stopped moving, its cockpit cracked with sparks as the short blade was left implanted in it. Athrun opened and closed his mouth, trying but failing to form words with them. The Strike reversed its thrusters and planted its foot on the chest of the broken Zaku and pushed off. A moment later, the unit exploded.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

The Freedom sped towards the burning Zaku with one hand reached out in desperation. But it was too late, whoever had piloted it before was dead, burned away by the explosion.

"Nicol!" Athrun tried repeatedly to make contact, but there was nothing but static. And his radar flashed with the incoming red dot labeled 'Strike'. The blue-haired boy stopped, his hands shaking violently. "You…" He turned his eyes to the image of the Strike coming in from his side. "You killed Nicol…" Athrun's eyes flashed, and replacing its normal, sapphire-clear orb, is a dull, emotionless hue. He turned the Freedom to face the Strike. "It's all your fault, you and your people." He paused and spoke explosively, "for making everyone die!" He activated the beam saber, which the Freedom held in its hand. Pushing the Thruster grips to maximum, the battered Freedom shot towards its enemy.

Kira 

_Power has run out, phase shift armor down. My options are one, flee, and two, fight using my surroundings and one armor Schneider assault knife. He is going to die today, I am going to fight. _

_I decided to fight, to kill my enemy, to avenge my friend Soujirou. I knew I wouldn't stand a chance against the Freedom in a head-on clash. So I turned the Strike, and accelerated towards one of the nearby debris. The Freedom wasn't expecting that, good. _

_I lay in the shadow of the debris, turning my system power to a bare minimum, waiting for a confused Freedom to appear so I could kill him. _

_The Freedom, its phase shift armor still on, speeds towards my location. He flew right past me, it seems like shutting off all of my systems had erased me from his radar. I gently give a nudge to the thrusters, letting a wink of energy pulse through my entire system and slowly track the Freedom. It turned around, noticing me. I send my entire unit at full power towards him, brandishing my only weapon. _

_Before I reach his position, I grab onto my shield and position it in front of me, I have no energy to activate the beam shield, damn it. So I threw it, tip forward, hoping to catch the Freedom off guard and destroying the phase shift near its cockpit. _

_He deflected my shield! It seems like he is faster and more skilled than normal, could he be in the same state as me? No time to think, it's coming. _

_I barely avoided the first slash aimed at my left arm, which was holding the remaining armor Schneider arm. Losing my only weapon would lower my success rate to a mere 7 percent, I can't allow that. I push on the thrusters and sent my entire unit into the Freedom, forcing him back. While he is off guard, I brandish my solid weapon and stab it towards the cockpit, much like what I did that killed the Zaku…_

_He catches my stab with his hand, how's that possible, though I have disabled one of his hands, his left hand._

Athrun 

_I block the attack of the Strike, the bastard thinks he can use the same attack on me that killed Nicol, I'm going to kill him. With my disabled left hand, I push him away. The Strike's phase shift armor is down, probably from the blast that destroyed Heliopolis. It's their entire fault! I slash with my beam saber, ah, he is off guard. I caught him in waist. The Strike's waist armor is crackling with sparks, good. _

The two Gundams twisted in combat, not giving each other the least amount of space to breath. With one clean slash, the Freedom ripped its beam sabers through the right shoulder of the Strike. But with that move, the Freedom left itself vulnerable. The Strike concentrated all its remaining energy into its left hand, which turned red from heat and jabbed it into the back of the Freedom, where it's nuclear power plant lie. The nuclear center crackled from the disturbance.

The Freedom knocked away the imposing hand immediately. One mechanical fist smashed into the face of the Strike. As it flew backwards, the Freedom brandished its beam saber and struck its entire length into the open cockpit.

_Open cockpit_

The pilotless strike's hands latched onto the arm of the Freedom while its empty cockpit burned away. Athrun, through his furious haze, saw the Strike detonate, burning away at what remained of his Gundam.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

The battlefield was large, spread out through space. The casualties were high. The remains of countless ships floated through space. Both the ZAFT and Earth had went all out, nearly decimating what remained of their fleets.

"Captain, I am receiving a message from headquarters." Kenshin looked to the speaker and nodded for her to continue. "It says that Hiko Seijurou, the Chairman of Earth Alliance, had forged a last minute agreement with Siegel Clyne, the Chairman of ZAFT, on a ceasefire."

Kenshin shook his head as if to clear away stray thoughts.

"What? Say that again."

"Sir," his speaker said, a huge grin spread across her face. "The war is over, Hiko and Clyne had forged a deal to end the fighting!"

Kenshin stood, not moving. He turned his gaze to outside, where ships were still firing upon each other.

"Get me on the international emergency line and hot-link me through to the commanding officer of the ZAFT fleet now."

"Sir, you are online."

Kenshin Himura, the Captain of the Majestic, strode shakily to his seat and picked up the communications handset. Instantly, the face of Saitou Hajime appeared on screen.

"Saitou," Kenshin began, "I hereby call a ceasefire, and I want your side to stop firing at us while we stop firing at you. No need for additional casualties."

A huge smirk spread through Saitou's face.

"Ah, Himura, long time no see," Saitou laughed and took a long drag from his cigarette. How he was allowed to smoke on the bridge, Kenshin would never know. "I have already ordered my ships to cease the attack at twenty-five hundred hours sharp." He glanced at his watch for a moment, "there is twenty seconds left, I was just going to call you." Kenshin briefly stopped speaking to order his fleet to cease-fire, which his operator did quickly.

"Saitou, I am bitter about the casualties which you caused the Earth Alliance and its people, and I'm sure you feel the same way if not more so." Kenshin said solemnly, "But I am ready to get over the bitterness for a brighter and more hopeful future for man-kind." He stood and saluted to the enemy captain.

"Good, I'm glad that you understand Himura." Saitou stood from his position and saluted.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

The destruction of Heliopolis and the firing of nuclear weapons had raised the attention of the Earth Alliance high council. For the first time, they had discussed issues concerning the war in the ZAFT's point of view.

I.e.

"Why would they destroy their own planet?"

"Why would they use the very weapon that they themselves declared forbidden?"

They had realized that the ZAFT were desperate enough to destroy one of their own colonies and launch the forbidden weapons for Freedom, their perfect society.

Many shouts of anger were sparked from the Earth High council; some even suggested the total annihilation of PLANT.

Hiko Seijurou, the chairman of EA, had stepped up.

"The goal of this war is to attain a unity to man-kind, our own perfect society." He had said, calming the entire council. "If we expand the aggression to a even higher level for a whole different reason, then what separates us from the savages?" He also asked, "what 'unity to man-kind' will we attain by annihilating the very people that we strive to combine with? We, as the mother land, must step back and stop the aggression immediately." He went on to propose a cease-fire for further negotiations. The act was passed within 20 minutes.

Siegel Clyne, the Chairman of ZAFT, had agreed to the cease-fire immediately.

The war of the Cosmic Era was ended, but not without the lives of thousands of men and women that fought on both sides. In the end, one must, as Kenshin said, question the whole validity of the war. No one had wanted to die a nameless soldier out in space; yet they fought savagely. People desired peace, yet they created war to achieve it.

The fate of Athrun and Kira, just two teenagers that were unfortunate enough to be caught in the evils of war, remains unknown. Maybe, under different circumstances, they could have become the best of friends. But now, the remains of their friends and possibly themselves float aimlessly through space, through the remains of what used to be a paradise of a planet.

No one could have pointed fingers at anyone, as when one is in the middle of a war, they cannot view anything with a clear picture. In the end, Earth and PLANT had formed an uneasy truce. A new, United Nations/Colonies central government (UNCCG) was formed. Both Hiko Seijurou and Siegel Clyne held the highest power mutually.

One may say that this is what fulfilled both ideals. The PLANT obtained their freedom while the Earth united mankind. But how long could this last before a new conflict, a threat perhaps, arise and once again draw the human race into a bloodbath with one another? After all, the very nature of man is to obtain power; to be stronger, to be faster, and to be more privileged than others.

We can only hope that a perfect society, meeting everyone's demands and needs, where each human could live happily, would be developed.

But then we'd have to ask ourselves.

_Is such a world possible?_

The End

Author's notes: Hope you liked the story, please tell me how you think I wrapped things up. Now, I know that there are still lots of loose ends that haven't been tied, like "what happened to Cagalli?" Or "Where did the Aegis get to when they raided the transport?" Now, I hope, all those questions will be answered in the sequel. Please wait for that patiently, as I don't know when I'll start on that yet.


End file.
